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CELEBRATION 


TWO  HONORED  AND  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEWBURY, 


JUNE    10,    1885. 


NEWBURYPORT: 

PllINTED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  OLD  NEWBURY. 

/'       

MDCCCLXXXV. 


4^ 


HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  OLD  NP:WBIT1IY. 


Public  Libkaky  Building,     ) 
Newbukypokt,  Mass.,  July  21,  1885.)" 

Kesolvei)  :  Tliat  the  special  committee,  appointed  June  39,  1885,  consisting  of 
Messrs.  S.  J.  Spalding,  John  J.  Currier,  Philip  K.  Hills,  William  H.  Huse,  William 
Little  and  Luther  Dame, — having  obtained  the  guarantee  required  to  cover  the  cost 
of  publication, — be  and  hereby  is  authorized  to  prepare  and  publish  in  a  convenient 
form  a  full  and  detailed  account  of  the  exercises  on  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anjiiversary  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury. 

A  true  copy.     Attest        ^^  ^    /^ 

John  D.  Paksons,  Secretary. 


Wn>I.lAM    H.    IIL'SE   A   CO., 

PRIXTKHS, 

NKWBITRVPOUT    HEIIAI.U. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Resolvtion  of  Thanks  by  the  Histokicai.  Society,     ....  5 

Pkei.iminaky  Pkoceedixgs, 9-13 

Centennial  Anniversary,  (1735) 9 

Two  Hundredth  Anniversary,  (1835) 9 

Two  Hvndked  and  Fiftieth  Axxiveksaky,  (1885)          ....  13-20 

Action  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury,    ....  13 

Meeting  of  Committees  of  Newbury,  West  Newburj-  and  Newburyport,  -14 

Appointment  of  Committees  on  Literarj-  Exercises  and  Finance,      .  14 

Appointment  of  Executive  Committee, 14 

Report  of  the  Committee  recommending  Plan  of  Celebration.          .  15 

Invitation  extended  to  Municipal  Authorities  of  Newbury,  England,  16 

Action  of  Borough  of  Newbury,  Berks,  England,     ....  1(3 

Invitation  to  Hon.  James  Russell  Lowell  to  deliver  tlie  Address,  17 

Samuel  C.  Bartlett,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  invited  to  deliver  Address,          .  18 

Newbury,  West  Newbury,  Newburyport  decline  official  co-operation  19 

Proceedings  of  Historical  Society  authorizing  change  of  plan,          .  19 

Plan  of  the  Celebration  as  amended  and  adopted  by  Historical  Society,  19 

Exercises  in  the  City  Hall,           .     •  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  23-68 

Address  of  William  Little,  Esq., 23 

Address  of  Hon.  John  J.  Currier, .«  2*5 

Prayer  by  Rev.  Francis  W.  Sanborn, 27 

Reading  of  the  Scriptures  by  Rev.  Daniel  T.  Fiske,  D.  D.,       .         .  29 

Hymn  by  Hon.  George  Lunt, 30 

Ode  by  Mrs.  Louisa  P.  Hopkins, 31 

Historical  Address  of  Samuel  Colcord  Bartlett,  D.  D..  LL.  D.,         .  36 

Remarks  by  Lieut.  A.  W.  Greeley, 68 

Benediction  by  Rev.  Samuel  J.  Spalding,  D.  D 68 

The  Pkooession, 71-73 

Chief  Marshal  and  Staff, 71 

Escort,  Companies  A  and  B,  Eighth  Regiment,          ....  71 


4  TABI.K    OK    ('OXTKNT8. 

PAOE 

First  Division, 71 

Second  Division, 73 

Tiie  Public  Schools  of  Newbury,  West  Newbury,  an  1  Newburyport,  72 

Route  of  Procession, 73 

The  Dinnek .      77-126 

Ushers,  Thomas  E.  Cutter,  chief, 77 

Grace,  by  Rev.  D.  T.  Fiske,  D.  D., 77 

Introductory  Speech  by  Hon.  John  J.  Currier,  president.          .         .  77 

Address  of  Hon.  A.  E.  Pillsbury, 79 

Letter  from  Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler, 81 

Address  of  Hon.  George  B.  Loring, 81 

Address  of  Hon.  William  W.  Crapo, 84 

Address  of  Rev.  George  D.  Wildes,  D.  D..  LL.  D 86 

Poem  by  Hon.  George  Lunt, 90 

Address  of  Capt.  Henry  M.  Cross, 91 

Address  of  David  L.  Withington,  Esq., 93 

Address  of  Hon.  Eben  F.  Stone, 95 

Address  of  Hon.  Charles  S.  Bradlej', 101 

Address  of  E.  Moody  Boynton,  Esq., 105 

Address  of  Lieut.  A.  W.  Greely, 107 

Address  of  Samuel  C.  Bartlett,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,          .         .         .         .  109 

Address  of  Benjamin  A.  Gould,  Ph.  D 110 

Address  of  Edward  Atkinson,  Esq.            113 

Letter  from  John  G.  Whittier,             114 

Address  of  Edward  S.  Moseley,  Esq 115 

Address  of  Rev.  Samuel  J.  Spalding,  D.  D 117 

Address  of  Rev.  A.  J.  Teeling, 119 

Address  of  James  Parton, 121 

Address  of  E.  P.  Dodge,  Esq.,           « 122 

Address  of  Hon.  John  R.  Rollins, 123 

A  Klref-s  of  Thomas  W.  Silloway,  Esq., 124 

Hymn  by  Rev.  Charles  C.  Se wall,      . 125 

Evening  Recei'tion, 129-136 

List  of  Portraits  displayed  in  Council  Chamber 130 

Appendix 139-150 

Letters  from  Invited  Guests, 139 

Poem  by  Miss  Emily  A.  Getchell, '43 

Members  of  tlie  Chorus l4o 

(Contributors  to  Guarantee  Fimd, 147 

Treasurer's  Report, ^49 

Subscribers  Guaranteeing  Publication  of  Memorial  Volume,     .        .  150 


RESOLUTION  OP^  THANKS. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Historical  Society,  held  at  the  Public  Library 
building,   July  21,  1885,  the  following  resolutions  were  adopted: 

Resolved  :  That  the  thanks  of  the  society  be  extended  to  President  Bartlett  for 
his  able  and  eloquent  oration  delivered  at  the  celebration  of  the  two  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  Old  Newbury. 

Resolved  :  That  we  deplore  the  death  of  the  honorable  George  Lunt — one  of 
the  honorarj'  members  of  this  societj' — and  in  conveying  to  his  widow  and  family 
our  deep  appreciation  of  liis  ability  and  worth,  we  would  especially  acknowledge 
our  indebtedness  to  liim  for  the  graceful  poem  written  for  the  anniversary  exer- 
cises of  June  10th.  1885. 

Resolved:  That  the  thanks  of  the  societj-  be  extended  to  Mrs.  Louisa  Parsons 
Hopkins  for  her  beautiful  and  felicitous  poem. 

Resolved  :  Tiiat  tlxe  thanks  of  the  society  be  extended  to  the  various  commit- 
tees and  their  o.*licers,  to  the  chief  marshal  and  his  aids,  to  the  leader  and  mem- 
bers of  the  chorus,  and  to  the  many  friends  who  by  pecuniar}-  aid  and  other  gifts 
and  services  contributed  so  mucli  to  the  success  of  tlie  celebration;  and  particularly 
to  Mr.  John  T.  Brown  for  his  arduous  and  successful  exertions  in  collecting  and 
arranging  the  large  number  of  portraits  exhibited  on  that  occasion. 

Resolved  :  That  copies  of  the  oration  and  poems  be  solicited  for  publication. 

A  true  copy.     Attest 

John  D.  Paksoss,  Secretary. 


PRELIMINARY   PROCEEDINGS. 


X": 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS, 


The  earliest  commemoration  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury,  Mass., 
of  which  we  have  any  knowledge,  was  the  first  centennial  anniversary, 
held  in  1735.  This,  "according  to  tradition,"  says  Joshua  Coffin,  "was 
duly  noticed  in  the  front  yard  of  Colonel  Joseph  Coffin's  house."  Be- 
yond this  most  indefinite  tradition  nothing  more  is  known. 

The  two  hundredth  anniversary  was  celebrated  May  26th,  1835,  with 
much  enthusiasm.  The  citizens  of  the  three  towns — Newbury,  New- 
buryport  and  West  Newbury — united  in  making  the  arrangements,  and 
in  providing  funds  by  private  contribution  to  meet  the  necessary  ex- 
penses. 

In  the  warrant  for  the  annual  town  meeting  of  Newbury,  1835,  was 
the  following:  "Ai't.  13.  To  determine  whether  the  town  will  notice  its 
approaching  second  centennial  anniversary,  and  if  so,  to  take  such 
measures  as  they  may  deem  expedient  for  that  purpose."  After  due 
consideration  it  was  "voted  to  notice  the  apj)roaching  Second  Centen- 
nial Anniversary  ;  also,  to  choose  a  committee  of  nine  to  carry  the 
same  into  effect." 

The  town  of  Newbiiry  sent  invitations  to  Newburyport  and  West 
Newbury  to  join  in  the  celebration.  The  invitations  were  accepted,  and 
a  conmiittee  of  arrangements  was  appointed,  consisting  of: 

Newbiiky— Moses  Little,  Silas  Moody,  Daniel  Noyes,  Ebenezer  Hale,  Daniel 
Adams,  3d,  James  Carey,  Josiah  Little,  John  Chickering,  Benjamin  Stickney. 
(The  last  two  filled  the  places  of  Daniel  Pliimmer  and  Tristram  Little,  who  re- 
signed.) 

Newbukyport — Henry  Frothingham,  Amos  Tappan,  Nathaniel  Foster,  John  Os- 
good, Caleb  Cusliing,  John  Bradbury,  Jeremiah  Colman,  Henry  Johnson,  Henry 
Titcomb,  jr. 

West  Newbury — Eliphalet  Emerj,  Dean  Robinson,  Moses  Newell,  Samuel 
Rogers,  Isaac  Boyd. 


10  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

The  committee  organized  by  the  choice  of  Moses  Little,  chaimian, 
and  Josiah  Little,  secretary.  Nathaniel  Foster  is  the  only  member  of 
this  committee  now  living.  After  its  organization  the  committee 
divided  itself  into  several  sub-committees  for  the  better  prosecution 
of  its  work,  and  held  meetings  nearly  every  week  at  the  Newbury 
town  house  on  the  turnpike,  which  was  afterwards  converted  into  the 
Brown  High  school  building,  and  more  recently  into  dwelling  houses. 
The  26th  of  May  was  fixed  upon  for  the  celebration.  The  prominent 
features  of  the  occasion  were  a  procession,  public  exercises  in  the  Pleas- 
ant street  church,  and  a  dinner. 

The  following  persons  were  appointed  as  marshals,  viz : 
Jeremiah  Colmax,   Chief  Marshal. 
James  Cakey,  Amos   Tappan,  Aids. 
Nathan  Brown,  Eleazer  Johnson,  3d,  Jacob  W.  Pierce, 

Thomas  Foster,  William  B.  Titcomb,  Wm.  Currier,  Jr., 

Josiah  Titcomb,  Uriah  Bayley,  Samuel  Rogers,  Jr., 

Richard  Tenney,  Daniel  T.  Colman,  George  Fitz, 

Edward  Titcomb. 

Of  these  but  two  (Thomas  Foster  and  George  Fitz)  survive. 

The  day  was  fair  but  cool,  and  the  weather  in  all  respects  propitious. 
A  salute  of  twenty-four  guns  was  fired  by  the  artillery  at  sunrise  and 
also  at  sunset.  The  route  and  order  of  the  procession  is  given  in  the 
following  notice,  published  in  the  Newburyport  Herald,  May  19,  1835: 

A  procession  will  be  formed  at  the  Town  House  in  Newbury,  at  10  o'clock,  a.  m., 
to  move  precisely  at  half-past  10,  escorted  by  the  Newburyport  Artillery  and  the 
Byfield  Rifle  Companies,  and  will  proceed  down  the  Turnpike  to  High  street, 
thence  through  Federal  and  Middle  streets,  tlirough  Market  square,  Broadway  and 
Merrimac  street,  up  Market  street,  through  Berry  street  and  Brown's  square  to 
the  Pleasant  street  church. 

ORDER   OF   PROCESSION. 

Aid.  Chief  Marshal.  Aid. 

Escort  with  Boston  Brass  Band. 

Marshal. 

Orator  and  Ofl[iciating  Clergyman. 

Marshal. 

Municipal  Authorities. 

Marshal. 

Invited  Guests. 

Marshal. 

Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Clergymen. 

Marshal. 

Marshal.  National  and  State  Officers.  Marshal. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    XEAVBURY.  H 

Newburrport  Marine  Society. 

Marshal.        Newburyport  and  Newbury  Fire  Departments.        Marshal. 

Washington  Light  Infantrj'  Association. 

Marshal.  Strangers.  Marshal. 

Citizens  generally. 

Marshal.  Marshal. 

The  soldiers  of  the  revohition  were  in  the  procession  and  rode  in  car- 
riages provided  at  the  public  expense,  as  appears  from  the  following 
notice  inserted  in  the  Newburyport  Herald  May  21,  1835: 

"  The  Revolutionary  soldiers  of  '76,  mhabitants  or  natives  of  Newburyport, 
Newburj",  or  West  Newbury,  are  invited  to  join  in  the  Centennial  Celebration  on 
the  26th  inst.,  and  are  requested  to  meet  at  the  Merchants'  Insurance  Office,  State 
street,  Newbury^port,  at  half-past  9  o'clock,  where  carriages  will  be  provided." 

Capt.  John  Bradbury  was  in  command  of  the  Newburyport  Artillery, 
and  Capt.  Ira  Stickney  in  command  of  the  Byfield  Rifles. 

The  Boston  Brass  Band  was  a  very  important  feature  of  this  occa- 
sion. It  was  the  first  time  that  a  full  brass  band  had  been  heard  in  the 
streets  of  Newburyport. 

The  following  was  the  order  of  the  exercises  at  the  church : 

1.  VOIXNTARY  ox  THE  OrGAX C.  ZuUCr 

2.  DrEiT  AXT)  Cnours  hy  the Choir 

3.  Reading  of  the  ScaiPTrKES  by Rev.  John  C.  March 

(From  a  Bible  printed  in  1634.) 

4.  Voluntary  by  the Band 

5.  Selections  from  42d  and  44tii  Psalms. 

Read  in  alternate  responses  between  the  Minister  and  Congregation. 

6.  Original  Hymn  by Hon.  George  Lunt 

Tune—' '  Old  Hundred." 

7.  Prayer  by Rev.  Dr.  Morss 

8.  Original  Ode — The  Pilgrims— by Hon.  George  Lunt 

Air — "  Gaily  the  Troubadour." 

9.  Oration  by Hon.  Caleb  Cushing 

10.  Anthem Beethoven 

11.  Benediction. 

The  Newburyport  Herald  of  May  29,  1835,  which  contains  the  toasts 
and  brief  notices  of  the  after-dinner  speeches,  has  no  sketch  of  the 
oration.  In  compliment  it  says:  "The  oration  by  Mr.  Cushing  was 
such  as  the  high  reputation  of  the  gentleman  justified  the  public  in  an- 
ticipating." 

Mr.  Everett,  in  his  remarks,  said:  "It  would  be  useless  and  pre- 
sumptuous, after  the  able  and  eloquent  remarks  on  the  subject  by  the 
orator  of  the  day,  to  descant  upon  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  our  fore- 
fathers." 

The  editor  of  the  Haverhill  Gazette,   who  was  present,  says  "Mr. 


12  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

Cushing's  oration  was  worthy  of  the  eminent  talents  of  its  author,  and 
of  the  interesting  occasion  which  called  it  forth.  We  may  be  regarded 
by  some  as  extravagant  in  our  admiration  of  this  eloquent  production  ; 
biit  are  nevertheless  of  opinion  that  for  richness  in  historical  facts,  for 
moral  elevation  of  sentiment,  loftiness  of  diction,  and  splendor  of 
imagery,  it  can  scarcely  be  surpassed.  It  occupied  an  hour  in  delivery, 
during  which  an  immense  auditory  listened  with  unusual  interest  and 
attention.  The  ode,  by  Mr.  Lunt,  is  beyond  all  dispute  a  grand  and 
beautiful  production.  No  descendant  of  the  Pilgrims,  who  loves  to 
contemplate  the  piety,  the  moral  heroism,  the  "noble  daring,"  the  suf- 
ferings, the  almost  miraculous  results  of  the  efforts  of  their  fathers,  in 
the  cause  of  human  liberty,  of  civilization,  and  of  religion — we  say  no 
true  descendant  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  could  have  heard  that  ode  read 
as  Mr.  Gushing  read  it,  and  sung  as  it  was  sung  on  that  occasion,  with- 
out experiencing  a  thrilling  sense  of  the  sublime,  and  a  deep  rever- 
ence pervading  his  entire  frame." 

Quite  recently  the  papers  of  Mr.  Gushing  have  been  examined  and 
the  oration  given  on  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  has  been  found.  It 
justifies  the  high  encomiums  bestowed  upon  it.  ', 

After  the  services  at  the  church  the  procession  was  re-formed  and 
proceeded  to  the  pavilion  which  had  been  put  up,  a  little  to  the  south 
and  east  of  the  Newbury  Town  House,  on  land  which  is  now  in- 
cluded in  the  Oak  Hill  cemetery.  About  seven  hundred  persons  dined 
at  the  pavilion.  Hon.  Ebenezer  Moseley  was  the  president  of  the  day, 
and  introduced  the  exercises  at  the  table. 

Among  the  guests  who  spoke  were  Lieutenant-Governor  Armstrong, 
Hon.  Edward  Everett,  Plon.  Samuel  Phillips,  Hon.  Caleb  Gushing,  Hon. 
George  Lunt,  Hon.  R.  G.  Winthroj),  Judge  T).  A.  White  and  Gol.  S. 
Swett,  Hon.  Levi  Cutter,  (Mayor  of  the  city  of  Portland),  Dr.  Kit- 
tredge  of  Salem,  Dr.  William  Ingalls  of  Boston,  Mr.  N.  Cleaveland, 
(Preceptor  of  Dummer  Academy),  Gol.  S.  L.  Knapp  of  New  York  City, 
(Governor  William  Plununer  of  New  Hampshire,  and  Mr.  Chinn  of 
Kentucky. 

The  pavilion  was  made  ))artly  of  boards  and  partly  of  cloth,  and  tlie 
walls  were  decorated  with  portraits  of  celebrities  of  the  old  town  and 
with  other  objects  of  historical  interest. 


TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY. 


At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury,  held 
January  30,  1884,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Lothrop  Withington,  a  committee 
of  seven  was  chosen  for  the  purpose  of  taking  preliminary  action  in  re- 
gard to  the  celebration  of  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  annivereary  of 
the  settlement  of  Newbury,  and  the  committee  "was  instructed  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  city  of  Newburyport  and  the  towns  of  Newbury 
and  West  Newbury  to  the  subject,  and  request  their  co-operation  in  the 
matter.  That  committee  was  composed  of  Samuel  J.  Spalding,  Wil- 
liam H.  Swasey,  William  H.  Huse,  James  Parton,  Lothrop  Withing- 
ton, of  Newburyport  ;  Luther  Dame  of  New^bury ;  Haydn  Brown  of 
West  Newbury.  A  circular  letter  was  prepared  and  forwarded  to  the 
towns  of  Newbury  and  West  Newbury  and  the  city  of  Newburyport 
early  in  1884,  as  follows: 

The  undersigned,  committee  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury,  have 
been  instructed  by  the  society  to  invite  the  co-operation  of  the  towns  of  Newbury 
and  West  Newbury  and  the  city  of  Newburyport  in  a  proposed  celebration  of  the 
two  lumdred  and  fiftietli  anniversary  of  tlie  settlement  and  incorporation  of  New- 
bury in  May,  1635. 

In  doing  this  tlie  committee  would  call  attention  to  tlie  importance  and  signiti- 
cance  of  tliis  anniversar}\ 

As  to  the  event  to  be  celebrated,  the  committee  would  submit  that  the  settle- 
ment at  the  mouth  of  tlie  Merrimac  was  no  small  factor  in  the  foundation  of  New 
England.  On  the  contrarj^  it  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  all.  From  tlie 
Merrimac  mouth  branched  out  the  settlers  of  the  great  Merrimac  valley,  (the  rich- 
est and  most  beautiful  of  all  New  England  water-courses),  the  greater  part  of  New 
Hampshire  and  of  Vermont,  and  some  of  the  most  famous  settlements  in  ^lassa- 
chusetts,  names  known  today  throughout  the  world.  The  founders  of  Old  New- 
burj'  were  as  a  body  among  the  most  independent,  the  most  individual,  the  most 
influential  of  all  the  early  New  England  towns.  They  included  men  who  were 
themselves  famous  in  two  hemispheres,  and  who  have  left  descendants  foremost 
in  all  industries  and  all  arts.  We  can  say  this  without  self-praise,  a  large  part  of  the 
blood  of  the  early  settlers  having  long  since  ceased  to  have  connection  with  the 
locality,  has  spread  over  the  continent.  We  are  many  of  us  new-comers.  But  we 
inherit  an  historic  spot,  and  equally  share  in  upholding  its  tradition.     The  native 


14  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

of  transalpine  Gaul  or  of  distant  Judea  was  as  proud  of  his  Roman  citizenship  as 
any  descendant  of  the  Julian  line.  So  we  today  that  once  breathe  the  air  of  the 
Merrimac  mouth  are  not  only  Yankees  from  that  hour,  but  belong  to  the  peculiar 
heart  of  New  England.  The  newest  comer  among  us  feels  his  whole  character 
affected  and  his  being  changed  by  the  atmosphere  and  manner  of  the  place. 
These  settlers  of  1635  made  a  new  departure  in  social  and  political  customs. 
They  wrought  out  a  new  idea  and  a  new  system.  They  showed  the  world  in 
practice  something  that  a  large  portion  of  the  world  believes  even  yet  to  be  im- 
practicable. They  demonstrated  the  fact  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  men  must 
be  governed  by  some  one  else,  bu  t  that  they  can  govern  themselves ;  that  it  is  pos- 
sible for  the  highest  and  the  lowest  to  live  together  in  terms  of  perfect  social 
equality.  In  the  demonstration,  in  this  battle  for  human  equality,  Old  Newbury 
bore  an  important  part  in  New  England.  Her  sons  should  not  forget  to  honor  the 
anniversary  of  her  birth. 

This  committee  invite  the  two  towns  and  the  city  to  each  add  a  committee  of 
citizens  to  all  join  us  as  a  general  committee  to  initiate  this  celebration  and  to  re- 
port progress  in  the  future. 

S.  J.  Spalding,  "| 

William  H.  Swasey,     [         Committee 

William  H.  Huse,         | 

James  Partox,  }  of  the 

•      LOTHROP   WiTHINGTON, 

LuTiiER  Dame,  |  Historical  Society. 

Haydn  Brown,  J 

In  response  to  this  invitation  a  committee  of  nearly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  was  appointed,  consisting  of  delegates  from  the  three  municipali- 
ties and  from  the  Historical  Society,  and  this  committee  was  first  con- 
vened in  the  Common  Council  room  in  the  City  Hall  at  Newbm-yport, 
May  7,  1884. 

Hon.  John  J.  Currier  was  elected  chairman  and  A.  W.  Greenleaf 
secretary. 

A  Committee  on  Literary  Exercises,  a  Committee  on  Finance,  and  an 
Executive  Committee  were  appointed. 

The  Committee  on  Literary  Exercises  consisted  of  the  following  gen- 
tlemen :  John  J.  Currier,  Eben  F.  Stone,  James  Parton,  George  J.  L. 
Colby,  Samuel  J.  Si)alding,  Amos  Noyes,  N.  N".  Withington,  of  New- 
buryport ;  Ben :  Perley  Poore,  George  E,  Noyes,  M.  Walsh  Bartlett,  of 
West  Newbury ;  Albert  S.  Adams,  of  Amesbury ;  H,  F.  Longfellow, 
William  Little,  Nathaniel  Dole,  of  Newbury. 

Finance  Committee — W.  H.  Huse,  E.  P.  Dodge,  D.  L.  Withington, 
H.  M.  Cross,  Philip  H.  Lunt,  of  Newburyport ;  Nathaniel  Dole,  Moses 
Colman,  of  Newbury  ;  Charles  W.  Ordway  of  West  Newbury. 

Executive  Committee — John  J.  Currier,  Benjamin  Hale,  Samuel  J. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OK    NEWBURY.  15 

Spalding,  P.  K.  Hills,  Henry  W.  Moulton,  James  Parton,  W.  H.  Swasey, 
Eben  F.  Stone,  William  H.  Huse,  Edward  F.  Bartlett,  of  Newbury- 
port ;  Albert  S.  Adams,  of  Amesbury  ;  William  Little,  Nathaniel  Dole, 
Luther  Dame,  of  Newbury ;  Michael  Walsh  Bartlett,  Eben  Moody 
Boynton,  of  West  Newbury. 

It  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Executive  Committee  to  report  a  general 
plan  for  the  celebration  of  the  anniversary. 

A  meeting  of  that  committee  was  held  June  4,  1884.  The  following 
report  was  unanimously  adopted  and  was  recommended  to  the  general 
committee  for  action  thereon : 

EEPOKT   OF  SrB-COMMlTTKE. 

The  sub-committee  appointed  to  prepare  a  plan  for  tlie  celebration  of  the  two 
hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversarj^  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury  respectfully  offer 
the  following  suggestions : 

First,  as  to  the  day  or  days  of  the  celebration.  Since  the  precise  day  of  the 
landing  at  Parker  river  in  1635  is  not  known,  but  in  all  probability  occurred  be- 
tween the  twentx-sixth  of  May  and  the  middle  of  June,  we  think  we  are  at  liberty 
to  select  any  day  within  that  period  which  holds  out  the  best  promise  of  favorable 
weather,  and  of  the  most  abundant  flowers.  We  therefore  suggest  Wednesday. 
June  10,  as  the  day  for  the  celebration. 

An  important  question  has  been  decided  by  your  committee,  whether  the  cele- 
bration shall  be  confined  to  one  day  or  extend  to  two  days.  We  are  of  the  opinion 
that  the  principal  and  official  celebration  of  the  anniversary'  should  be  confined  to 
one  day,  and  that  the  more  popular  exercises  for  which  the  executive  committee 
would  be  responsible  in  a  less  degree,  should  take  place  on  the  day  following. 
We  suggest  this  outline : 

FIRST  DAY. 

1.  A  meeting  at  the  Pleasant  street  church,  or  in  the  City  Hall,  at  half-past  ten 
in  the  morning,  the  chief  exercise  of  which  should  be  an  oration  by  some  cue 
connected  with  this  vicinity  by  lineage  or  otherwise.  There  should  also  be  music 
and  singing  on  this  occasion. 

2.  A  banquet  at  one  o'clock  in  a  tent  on  the  upper  Oldtown  green,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  singing  of  glees,  and  short  speeches  of  a  festive  and  after-dinner 
character. 

3.  In  the  evening,  a  reception  and  dance,  at  the  City  Hall,  with  exhibition  of 
historical  relics  and  tableaux  upon  the  stage,  witli  liberty  to  the  guests  of  wearing 
any  old  time  costume  they  may  prefer.  The  tableaux  to  be  arranged  upon  the 
stage  and  exhibited  at  convenient  intervals  between  the  dances. 

SECOND  DAY. 

1.  In  the  morning  a  procession  of  trades,  benevolent  orders,  soldiers,  firemen, 
students,  horsemen,  with  vehicles  adorned  with  flowers  and  garlands,  accom- 
panied by  good  bands  of  music,  to  move  at  ten  o'clock  and  traverse  the  principal 
streets.    A  general  decoration  of  the  route  with  flowers,  banners  and  drapery. 


16  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

2.  An  iuformal  luncheon  for  the  participants,  on  Brown  square. 

3.  In  the  afternoon,  excursions  on  the  river,  (not  in  charge  of  the  committee), 
clam  bakes  on  Plum  Island  and  Salisbury  Beach,  barge  rides  into  the  country. 

4.  In  the  evening  at  half-past  eight  an  exhibition  of  fire-works  from  a  raft  in 
the  middle  of  the  Frog  Pond,  with  bands  of  music  playing  at  intervals  on  the  Mall. 

FUKTIIEU   KECOMMEXDATIONS   AND   SrGGESTIONS. 

Your  sub-committee  further  recommend  that  committees  of  suitable  character 
and  number  be  appointed  to  carry  out  the  proposed  suggestions ;  among  others 
the  following : 

Committees  on  finance,  literary  exercises,  music,  tableaux,  reception  and  enter- 
tainment of  visitors,  invitations,  banquet,  procession,  fireworks,  memorial  volume. 

Your  committee  further  suggests  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  form  these 

committees,  with  the  particular  recommendation  that  they  may  embrace  a  fair  and 

full  representation  of  the  ladies  of  these  communities.     As  the  selection  of  the 

committees  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance,  they  further  advise  that  this 

committee  be  allowed  ample  time  for  the  discharge  of  their  difficult  and  delicate 

duty. 

James  Pakton,  Chairman  of  Sub-Committee. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee,  held  June  11,  1884,  it  was 
voted  to  accept  and  adopt  the  recommendations  of  the  report,  and  to 
instruct  the  Executive  Committee  to  carry  its  provisions  into  effect,  un- 
less otherwise  ordered. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting,  held  September  24,  1884,  on  motion  of 
Major  Ben :  Perley  Poore,  the  Committee  on  Literary  Exercises  was  em- 
powered to  invite  delegates  from  Newbury,  England,  to  be  present  and 
participate  in  the  celebration.  In  accordance  with  this  vote  an  invita- 
tion was  extended  to  the  municipal  authorities  of  Newbury,  England, 
and  the  following  answer  was  received: 

BOROUGH  OF  NEWBURY,  BERKS. 

TO    WIT: 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  the  said  Borough  held  at  the 
Council  Chamber  of  and  in  the  said  Borough  on  Tuesday,  the  thirteenth  day  of 
January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-five. 

Present — William  Hall,  Esqbe,  Mayor. 
Aldermen : 
Edwakd  Wilson,  William  Geokge  Adey, 

James  Henky  Lucas,  James  Absalo.m. 

Councillors : 
Henky  Dolton,  George  Mitchell  Knight, 

James  Benjamin  Stone,  Robekt  Long, 

Charles  Lucas,  Stephen  Knight, 

Robert  Johnston,  Robert  James  Lovell, 

Henry  Jordan  Midwinter. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  17 

It  was  TJNANIM0TJ8LT  EE80LVKD — That  this  council  desires  to  express  to  the  Mayor 
and  Citizens  of  the  Town  of  Newburj-port,  Massachusetts,  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  its  liearty  congratulations  on  the  approaching  celebration  of  tlie  two 
hundred  and  fiftieth  Anniversary  of  its  Incorporation,  recognizing  its  Municipality 
as  in  some  sort  the  offspring  of  this  Ancient  Borough,  the  past  history  of  which 
is  so  largely  interwoven  with  that  of  the  Parent  Country. 

That  they  desire  to  greet  with  hearty  goodwill  and  sympathy  the  Municipality 
of  Newburyport,  and  to  rejoice  with  them  on  the  remarkable  progress  and  pros- 
perity which,  by  the  blessing  of  Providence,  and  the  efforts  of  those  enterprising 
men  who  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  left  their  native  land  to  found  a  new  home 
in  the  Western  Continent,  has  attended  their  Corporate  existence  for  so  long  a 
period. 

That  it  is  peculiarly  gratifjing  to  the  Corporate  Body  and  to  the  Inhabitants  of 
this  Borough  to  know  that  a  former  Minister  of  this  Town^the  Rev'd  Thomas 
Parker,  was  one  of  the  original  Settlers  at  Newburyport,  in  the  year  1634;  and 
that  the  name  of  a  Rector  of  this  Parish — the  Rev'd  Benjamin  Woodbridge,  occu- 
pies the  first  place  on  the  List  of  Graduates  of  Harvard  University,  and  very  sin- 
cerely do  they  trust  that  the  Town  of  Newburyport  may  continue  to  flourish  and 
contribute  many  illustrious  names  to  the  Roll  of  American  Worthies. 

Resolved  Fuether  : — That  a  Copy  of  these  Resolutions,  suitably  engrossed,  be 
sealed  with  the  Common  Seal  of  the  Corporation,  signed  by  the  Mayor,  and  for- 
warded to  the  Mayor  of  Newburyport  by  the  Town  Clerk. 

William  Hall,  Mayor,    [seal] 

H.  Burke  Godwin,  Town  Clerk. 


Town  Clerk's  Office,  ) 
Newbcry,  January  31, 1885.)" 
Sir  :  In  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the  Corporation  of  this  Borough,  passed  at 
a  meeting  held  on  the  13th  instant,  I  have  much  pleasure  in  forwarding  to  you  the 
accompanying  address  to  the  Corporation  of  Newburyport,  in  connection  with  the 
two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury,  in  the  United 
States  of  America ;  and  I  beg  you  to  accept  my  own  best  wishes  for  the  future 
prosperity  of  your  city. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

H.  Burke  Godwin,  Town  Clerk. 
To  the  Worshipful,  the  Mayor  of  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  U.  S.  A. 

This  address  is  elegantly  and  elaborately  engrossed  on  parchment, 
and  ornamented  with  lettering  and  titles  of  red,  blue  and  gold.  It 
has  been  placed  in  the  archives  of  the  city  of  Newburyport. 

An  invitation  was  sent  October  22,  1884,  to  Hon.  James  Russell 
Lowell,  LL.  D.,  then  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  to  give  the   oration.     The  following 

letter  was  received  in  reply : 

Legation  of  the  United  States,) 
London,  9th  January,  1885.       / 
John  J.  Currier,  Esq. 

Dear  S'r:  I  regret  verj'  much  that  my  delay  in  answering  your  letter  of  23d 
October,  should  have  put  you  to  anj^  inconvenience.     I  laid  it  aside  in  the  hope 


18  TWO    HUXDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

that  my  plans  for  the  future  might  before  long  so  far  define  themselves  as  to  enable 
me  to  decide  whether  it  would  be  possible  for  me  to  accept  your  invitation.  I  am 
still  uncertain  as  to  whether  I  shall  be  at  home  during  the  summer,  and  therefore 
thought  it  best  to  send  you  a  telegram  to  say  that  I  could  not  undertake  the  duty 
you  so  kindly  wished  me  to  assume. 

I  felt  highly  honored  by  your  choice  of  me  to  p  erform  so  important  a  function 
in  a  celebration  which  deeply  interests  me  in  many  ways,  and,  had  I  been  at  home, 
nothing  would  have  given  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  do  my  share  in  commemo- 
rating tlie  men  and  the  events  that  have  given  Newbury  a  not  undistinguished 
place  of  its  own  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts.  But  I  find  myself  compelled  by 
circumstances,  mainly  of  a  private  nature,  to  deny  myself  the  great  satisfaction 
of  being  with  you  and  claiming  at  least  an  ancestral  riglit  to  show  myself  a  duti- 
ful son  of  your  ancient  town. 

I  pray  you  to  make  my  thanks  and  regrets  acceptable  to  the  gentlemen  asso- 
ciated with  you  in  the  management  of  the  celebration. 

And  to  believe  me,  very  faithfully  yours, 

J.  R.  Lowell. 

Immediately  on  receiving  the  declination  of  Hon.  Mr.  Lowell,  the 
Committee  on  Literary  Exercises  made  choice  of  Samuel  Colcord  Bart- 
lett,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Dartmouth  College,  and  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  Richard  Bartlett  of  Old  Newbury,  to  give  the  oration. 
The  following  is  his  letter  of  acceptance : 

Dartmouth  College,  \ 

Hanover,  N.  H.,  January  26,  1885.  >" 

Messrs.  John  J.  Currier,  Chairman,  and  A.  W.  GiiEENLEAF,  Secretary. 

Gentlemen :  I  have  duly  received  your  invitation  to  deliver  an  address  before 
the  citizens  of  Newbury  on  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary,  the  latter 
part  of  May  or  earlj-^  in  June  next. 
I  thank  you  for  the  honor  of  the  invitation,  and  accept  it  with  pleasure. 
In  response  to  your  kind  oJBfer  to  furnish  information,  I  will  ask  you  to  place  in 
my  hands  such  histories  or  historical  sketclies  of  the  old  town  and  its  subdivisions 
as  may  have  been  published — whatever  will  sliow  its  history  down  to  the  present 
date — including  the  latest  directory  and  a  map. 

I  shall  endeavor,  as  soon  as  the  pressure  of  my  engagements  will  admit — per- 
.haps  three  weeks  hence,  or  a  little  more — to  make  a  visit  of  observation  and  in- 
quiry to  Newburyport.    Meanwhile  I  can  make  use  of  the  documents. 
Yours,  very  respectfully, 

S.  C.  Babtlett. 

The  Committee  on  Literary  Exercises  also  invited  Hon.  George  Lunt, 
John  G.  Whittier,  Mrs.  R.  S.  Spofford,  and  Mrs.  Louisa  P.  Hopkins  to 
write  poems  for  the  anniversary  exercises.  Mr.  Lunt  and  Mrs.  Hop- 
kins accepted  the  invitation.  Mr.  Whittier  responded  with  a  letter  to 
be  read  at  the  dinner  table,  and  Mrs.   Spoiford  was  unable  to  comply 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT   OF    NEAVBURT.  19 

with  the  request,  having  previously  accepted  an  invitation  to  write  a 
poem  for  the  celebration  at  Rocky  Hill,  June  17,  1885. 

The  different  committees  found  themselves  greatly  embarrassed  in 
forming  their  plans,  from  the  fact  that  there  was  no  financial  basis  on 
which  to  build,  and  nothing  definite  could  be  detennined  until  the 
towns  and  the  city  in  their  corporate  capacity  had  taken  action.  Late 
in  the  spring  of  1885  such  action  was  taken,  but  the  appropriations 
asked  for  were  not  granted.  It  then  became  necessary  to  essentially 
change  the  plan  of  the  celebration. 

A  meeting  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury  was  held  at 
the  Public  Library  Building,  Tuesday,  April  21,  1885,  and  the  follow- 
ing resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted: 

Whereas,  The  committee  appointed  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury 
have  been  unable  to  secure  the  active  co-operation  of  the  towns  of  Newbury  and 
West  Newbury,  and  the  city  of  Newburyport,  in  its  proposed  celebration  of  the 
two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Old  Newbury ;  therefore 
be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  various  committees  already  organized  for  that  purpose  be, 
and  hereby  are,  directed  to  perfect  the  arrangements  for  an  address  suitable  to  the 
occasion,  to  be  delivered  in  City  Hall ;  a  public  dinner  with  brief  after-dinner 
speeches  from  invited  guests,  and  a  reception  and  promenade  concert  in  the  evening, 
all  to  be  given  under  the  auspices  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury  ;  and 
that  the  members  and  friends  of  this  association,  at  home  and  abroad,  as  well  as 
the  citizens  generally,  be  invited  to  participate  in  the  exercises  of  the  day. 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Finance,  appointed  by  the  General  Commit- 
tee, be  authorized  and  instructed  to  solicit  subscriptions  from  members  and  friends 
of  the  society  in  aid  of  the  funds  needed  to  carry  out  the  contemplated  plans. 

The  following  notice  was  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments : 

CELEBBATION   OF   THE   TWO   HrKDRED   AND    FIFTIETH    AKNIVKBSART    OF    THE    SETTLE- 
MENT  OF   NEWBrRT,    MASS. 

The  Committee  of  Arrangements,  appointed  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Old 
Newburj',  have  decided  upon  the  following  programme  of  exercises  for  June  10, 
1885,  and  respectfully  invite  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  descendants  of  the 
early  settlers  of  Newbury,  wherever  they  may  reside. 

Samuel  Colcord  Bartlett,  LL!  D.,  Pr^ident  of  Dartmouth  College,  will  deliver 
an  address  in  City  Hall,  Newburyport,  at  half-past  ten  o'clock,  a.  m.  A  chorus  of 
voices  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Norman  McLeod  of  Newburyport,  will  render 
some  selections  of  music  appropriate  to  the  occasion. 

A  dinner  at  2  o'clock,  p.  m.,  in  a  tent  to  be  erected  near  the  Upper  Green, 
(Oldtown)  Newburj',  (or  elsewhere  as  may  be  hereafter  decided  upon),  with 
speeches  from  distinguished  guests,  will  occupy  the  afternoon. 


20  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

A  reception  and  social  reunion  at  City  Hall  in  the  evening,  will  close  the  exer- 
cises of  the  day. 

The  seats  in  the  hall,  for  the  literary  exercises  of  the  morning,  will  be  free  to 
the  public,  except  those  that  are  reserved  for  subscribers  to  the  fund  in  aid  of  this 
celebration  and  for  specially  invited  guests. 

For  the  dinner,  tickets  of  admission  will  be  required.  Only  a  limited  number 
will  be  issued,  and  they  will  be  sold  for  one  dollar  each. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  on  Finance,  held  April  21,  1885,  it 
was  voted  to  raise  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  and  to  appeal  for 
that  purpose  to  the  generous  sons  of  Newbury,  Newburyport  and  West 
Newbury.  That  the  contributors  to  the  fund  for  which  subscriptions 
were  solicited  might  be  suitably  recognized,  it  was  voted  that  for 
every  five  dollars  contributed,  a  reserved  seat  at  the  exercises  at  City 
Hall,  at  the  dinner  table,  and  a  ticket  to  the  evening's  entertainment 
should  be  furnished. 

Mr.  Philip  H.  Lunt  was  elected  treasurer  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, May  5,  1885. 

The  day  appointed  for  the  celebration,  June  10,  1885,  was  in  all  re- 
spects most  propitious.  The  weather  was  simply  ])erfect.  Scarcely  a 
cloud  appeared  on  the  blue  surface  of  the  sky.  The  morning  sun  rose  in 
splendor  and  shed  its  brightest  rays  over  river  and  field.  A  gentle 
breeze  from  the  southwest  tempered  its  rays  to  the  comfort  of  all  who 
walked  the  streets,  and,  although  as  the  day  advanced  the  heat  in- 
creased somewhat,  still  at  no  time  was  it  uncomfortably  warai,  and 
throughout  the  day  and  evening  the  weather  was  all  that  could  have 
been  desired. 

By  order  of  the  Mayor,  the  bells  of  the  various  churches  in  the  city 
of  Newburyport,  were  rung  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  mid-day, 
and  at  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

At  an  early  hour  many  familiar  faces  were  seen  upon  the  streets ; 
countenances  of  sons  and  daughters  of  old  Newbury  who  had  returned 
to  the  mother  town  to  commemorate  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  an- 
niversary of  its  settlement.  Many  strange  faces  too  were  seen, — of  per- 
sons allied  by  other  ties  than  those  of  birth  to  the  ancient  town,  who 
were  eager  to  share  in  the  festivities  and  joys  of  the  day.  All  naturally 
trended  to  the  City  Hall,   where  the  literary  exercises  were  held. 


EXERCISES  IN  THE  CITY  HALL. 


EXEECISES  IN  THE  CITY  HALL. 


At  an  early  hour  every  seat  in  the  hall,  except  those  reserved  for 
siibscribers  and  invited  guests,  was  occupied.  The  large  chorus  com- 
posed of  ladies  and  gentlemen  from  the  three  towns — Newbury,  West 
Newbury  and  Newburyport — under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Norman 
McLeod,  of  Newburyport,  and  an  orchestra  of  twenty  skilled  musi- 
cians, under  the  charge  of  Mr.  T.  M.  Carter,  of  Boston,  were  provided 
with  seats  upon  the  stage. 

At  half-past  ten  o'clock,  a.  m.,  the  President  of  the  Historical  Society, 
with  the  orator  of  the  day,  and  the  President  of  the  Day  with  the  of- 
ficiating clergymen,  led  the  way  from  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen's 
room  to  the  hall  above,  followed  by  the  invited  guests  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  literary  committee. 

The  exercises  opened  with  an  overture,  by  the  orchestra,  entitled, 
"Morning,  Noon,  and  Night."  At  its  close  William  Little,  Esq.,  of 
Newbury,  President  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury,  sjjoke 
as  follows: 

ADDRESS    OF    WILLIAM    LITTLE,    ESQ. 

Toadies  and  Gentletnen: 

In  behalf  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury  it  devolves  upon 
me  to  open  the  exercises  of  the  day,  to  give  a  cordial  greeting  to  all 
who  gather  here  to  celebrate  the  natal  day  of  the  old  town  ;  and  it  will 
not  be  inappropriate  if  I  go  back  to  the  beginning  and  briefly  indicate 
the  line  under  which  the  arrangements  for  the  observance  of  the  day 
have  been  consummated.  At  a  centennial  celebration  of  our  national 
independence  on  the  Upper  Green  in  Newbury  it  was  resolved  to  meet 


24  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    KIFTIKTH    ANNIVERSARY 

at  a  future  day  on  the  Lower  Green,  the  place,  as  most  of  you  know,  of 
the  original  settlement  in  the  town,  inviting  thereto  all  interested  by 
lineage,  birth,  residence,  or  otherwise,  in  the  record  of  Old  Newbury, 
and  there  form  a  Historical  Society.  That  meeting  was  held  and  the 
society  formed,  and,  as  might  be  inferred,  from  its  initial  step,  an  im- 
portant part  of  its  work  was  and  now  is  to  provide  a  channel  of 
intercourse,  to  increase  acquaintanceship,  and  to  cultivate  fraternal 
feelings  between  us  who  remain  here  and  those  of  Newbury  descent  or 
connection  who  had  found  homes  elsewhere,  for  we  felt  like  the  re- 
maining child  on  an  old  homestead,  bound  by  the  highest  social  obliga- 
tions to  exercise  a  generous  hospitality  whenever  a  family  gathering 
was  in  view,  or  when  a  single  member,  solitary  and  alone,  desired  to 
walk  over  the  acres  that  his  father  had  ploughed  ;  for  in  this  inherited 
inheritance  we  felt  that  there  could  be  division  without  loss,  nay,  with 
positive  gain.  "There  is  he  who  scattereth  and  yet  increaseth,  he  that 
withholdeth  more  than  is  meet  and  it  tendeth  to  poverty ;"  and  may  I 
not  express  the  belief  that  a  fit  expression  and  an  apt  illustration  of 
this  will  be  found  in  the  selection  of  the  orator  of  the  day. 

Prompted  by  these  views,  urged  on  by  these  feelings,  we  haA'e  looked 
forward  to  the  present  year  with  interest,  and  early  resolved  that  some 
commemoration  should  be  made  of  its  historic  imj)ortance  ;  and  at  our 
annual  meeting,  January,  1884,  action  was  taken,  inviting,  also,  co-oper- 
ation from  the  city  of  Newburyport  and  the  towns  of  West  Newbury 
and  Newbury.  These  invitations  were  cordially  accepted,  proper  com- 
mittees api)ointed,  and  some  preliminary  action  taken  ;  but  when  this 
present  year  it  was  found  that  through  a  technical  and  probably  cor- 
rect interpretation  of  the  law  of  this  State  no  funds  would  be  raised  by 
either  of  these  sub-divisions  of  the  old  town  to  meet  the  expenses  of 
the  day,  the  necessity  of  some  change  in  the  arrangements  became  ob- 
vious to  all.  To  meet  this  need  the  Historical  Society  at  once  came 
forward  and  assumed  the  whole  responsibility  of  the  celebration,  and 
still  desirous  of  retaining  connection  with  the  city  and  towns  as  far  as 
possible,  retained  in  service  all  committees  already  appointed.  But 
whatever  changes  have  been  in  our  arrangements  we  do  not  wish  to 
have  it  understood  that  they  have  been  at  a  loss,  in  view  of  the  inter- 
est or  value  of  the  day.  If  by  them  we  have  made  less  effort  at  out- 
ward dis})lay,  then  the  better  the  opportunity  to  do  our  work  on  a  line 
more  legitimate  and  ai)propriate  to  the  object  in  view,  and  thus  seek  to 
especially  draw  those  who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  subject  and  the 
occasion,  who  are  true  to  old  Newbury,  its  instincts  and  traditions — 
true  to  the  township  system  of  New  England,  who  appreciate  and  value 
local  and  family  historic  incidents  and  associations,  and  see  in  their 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NE>VBURY.  25 

collection  and  preservation  a  powerful  factor  in  developing  that  feeling 
of  personal  responsibility  without  which  no  government  "  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people "  can  endure.  In  our  eif orts  in  this 
direction  we  believe  we  have  met  with  decided  success,  that  he  who 
stands  on  this  platform  today  will  face  an  audience  (to  use  an  old  Eng- 
lish phrase  in  its  higher  and  better  American  form)  loyal  to  town,  to 
state,  to  nation,  and  to  God,  and  this  we  pledge  to  .you  today,  sir,  in 
water  sparkling  and  bright  from  Bartlett  spring.  And  now  to  those 
who  from  beyond  our  confines  have  gathered  with  us  here  today  and 
add  by  their  presence  to  the  grace,  interest  and  character  of  the  occa- 
sion, it  is  my  duty,  and  more  my  pleasure,  in  behalf  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  Old  Newbury, — nay  more,  as  I  now  believe,  in  behalf  of 
Old  Newbury  itself — to  bid  you  a  cordial  welcome  ;  and  I  would  that 
the  words  that  drop  from  my  lips  could  fully  and  fairly  express  the 
emotions  of  our  hearts  that  prompt  their  utterance.  Welcome  then  to 
our  fields  won  from  the  forests  by  the  hard  toil  of  your  fathers  and  of 
ours !  Welcome  to  our  streets,  our  schools,  our  churches,  to  all  our 
public  institutions,  founded  as  many  of  them  were  by  their  wise  fore- 
cast, sustained  in  early  years  by  their  prudent  care,  and  bequeathed  to 
us  as  priceless  legacies  to  be  guarded,  sustained  and  transmitted  to  the 
latest  generation.  Welcome  to  our  homes,  to  our  old  roof-trees  that 
seem  even  now  to  re-echo  to  the  gladsome  shouts  of  families  of  children 
(oftimes  half  a  score  or  more  in  number)  who  yet  have  long  since 
passed  through  the  "  seven  ages  of  man "  and  been  laid  away  at  rest. 
Welcome  to  our  hearthstones,  to  the  old  hearthstones  graced  and  honored 
as  they  were  by  mothers,  who  as  you  and  I  well  know,  as  true,  as  noble  as 
ever  on  the  face  of  the  earth  held  babe  to  breast ;.  and  go  stand  on  the 
green  hill-sides  where,  in  sorrow  and  tears,  was  left  all  that  was  mortal 
of  them,  and  think  of  how  much  of  all  you  are,  all  you  have  enjoyed, 
all  you  hope  to  be  is  due  to  their  patient  work,  their  high  rectitude  and 
their  willing  sacrifice.  Welcome  to  one !  welcome  to  all !  no  matter 
how  low,  no  matter  how  fallen,  no  matter  how  cast  down,  if  the  blood 
of  old  Newbury  flows  in  your  veins,  then  this  to  us  today  "shall  gentle 
your  condition,"  and  if  you  are  not  of  our  lines  and  lineage  but  are 
here  to  do  honor  and  to  show  your  regard  for  the  old  town,  then  for 
you  a  right  royal  welcome,  too! 

I  cannot  close  without  adverting  to  a  sentiment  in  which  I  know  all 
hearts  here  beat  in  unison.  It  is  that  of  gratitude  to  that  benign 
Providence  who  from  the  "  handful  of  corn  cast  in  the  wilderness '' 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  has  given  an  increase  of  more  than 
thirty,  more  than  sixty,  more  than  a  hundred  fold.  Therefore,  in  view 
of  this,  and  of  this  audience  here  assembled,  of  the  thousands  near  and 


26  TWO   HUNDRED   AND    FIFTIETH   ANNIVERSARY. 

far  whose  eyes  are  turned  hither  and  whose  hearts  are  with  us  today ; 
of  the  tens  of  thousands  scattered  from  ocean  to  ocean  in  happy  homes, 
and  leading  useful  lives,  whose  ascending  lines  converge  and  meet 
here,  may  we  not  with  propriety  congratulate  ourselves  that  those  words 
of  one  of  the  most  gifted,  perhaps  the  most  cultured  blade  that  ever 
sprang  from  this  "corn," 

"A  race  of  nobles  may  die  out, 
A  royal  line  may  leave  no  heir ; 
Wise  nature  sets  no  guards  about 
Her  pewter  plate  and  wooden  ware," 

have  no  application  to  those  who,  broad  and  deep,  laid  the  foundations 
of  Old  Newbury. 

In  conclusion,  we  wish  to  have  it  understood  that  we  appreciate  the 
sentiment  conveyed,  and  today  we  intend  to  win  the  compliment  im- 
plied in  the  line  from  the  book  so  revered  by  our  fathers — "Thou  hast 
kept  the  good  wine  until  now  ;" — therefore,  with  pleasure  only,  do  I 
now  retire,  naming  as  officers  of  the  day  the  Hon.  John  James  Currier, 
president,  and  Albert  W.  Greenleaf,  secretary. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Little's  address  the  following  chorus — 
"The  Heavens  are  Telling," — from  "The  Creation,"  by  Haydn,  was 
sung. 

0H0EU8. 

The  heavens  are  telling  the  glory  of  God, 

The  wonder  of  His  work  displays  the  firmament. 

TEIO. 

Today  that  is  coming,  speaks  it  the  day. 
The  night  that  is  gone  to  following  night. 

TEIO. 

In  all  the  lands  resounds  the  word. 
Never  unperceived,  ever  understood. 

CHORUS. 

The  heavens  are  telling  the  glory  of  God, 

The  wonder  of  His  work  displays  the  firmament. 

The  President  of  the  Day,  Hon.  John  James  Currier,  of  Newbury- 
port,  then  said: 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  J.  CURRIER. 
TjCidies  and  Gentlemen,  /Sons  and  Daughters  of'  Old  Newbury : 

Your  presence  here,  in  such  goodly  numbers,  from  towns  near  and 
far  remote,  is  an  assurance  that  you  still  feel  a  deep  and  abiding  inter- 
est in  the  events  we  meet  to  commemorate,  and  that  the  love  of  kindred 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  27 

and  of  home  has  not  lost  its  place  or  power  in  your  hearts.  I  trust  that 
the  renewal  of  old  ties  of  friendship,  and  the  sight  of  old  familiar 
scenes  will  bring  you  into  full  sympathy  with  the  spirit  and  purpose  of 
this  occasion,  and  that  the  words  of  the  orator, — who  is  soon  to  address 
you, — recalling  the  half  forgotten  past,  will  increase  and  strengthen 
your  love  and  affection  for  the  old  town,  and  lead  you  to  a  closer 
and  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  its  early  local  history  and  later 
social  life.  Since  the  first  settlement  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Parker, 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  the  love  of  adventure  and  the  pursuit 
of  wealth  or  fame  has  tempted  many,  born  and  nurtured  here,  to  seek 
a  more  active  and  busy  life  in  distant  states  and  foreign  lands.  To 
every  corner  of  the  habitable  globe  they  have  wandered,  and  one  es- 
pecially, known  to  you  all,  has  passed  long  and  weary  months  of  suffer- 
ing and  privation  amid  the  snow  and  ice  of  the  Polar  seas.  But 
wherever  they  may  be,  today,  our  hearts  go  out  to  meet  them.  To  the 
absent  we  send  fraternal  greetings,  while  with  outstretched  hands  we 
welcome,  in  the  cordial  words  already  spoken,  those  who  have  come 
back  like  pilgrims  to  the  old  ancestral  home. 

As  friends,  neighbors,  kinsmen,  we  have  gathered  here  to  commem- 
orate events  that  gave  to  the  town  of  Newbury  a  corporate  existence 
and  a  name.  May  6,  1635,  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  appointed  a  board  of  commissioners  to  set  out  the  bounds 
between  Ipswich  and  Quascacunquen,  and  at  the  same  time  ordered 
that  the  new  plantation  should  be  called  Newbury.  July  8th  of  the 
same  year  a  tax  for  public  uses  was  levied  upon  all  the  towns  in  the 
colony,  and  Newbury's  proportion  of  that  assessment  was  fixed  at  eight 
pounds  sterling.  Between  these  two  dates  it  is  probable  that  the  first 
settlers  built  their  rude  homes  on  the  river  Parker,  and  soon  after 
erected  the  first  church,  established  the  first  school,  and  thus  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  civilization  we  now  enjoy.  Reverently  and  devoutly 
with  voice  of  prayer  and  song  of  praise  they  entei-ed  upon  the  work 
before  them,  and  we  their  descendants  commemorating  their  virtues, 
are  prompted  in  like  manner  to  invoke,  upon  our  proceedings  here  to- 
day, the  blessing  of  God.  I  ask  your  attention,  therefore,  while  prayer 
is  offered  by  Rev.  Francis  W.  Sanborn,  pastor  of  the  first  church  estab- 
lished in  Newbury. 

Rev.  Mr.  Sanborn  then  offered  the  following  prayer : 

PRAYER  OF  REV.  FRAI^CIS  W.  SANBORN. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God!  who  ever  abidest  with  them  who 
have  faith  in  Thee ;  Thou  who  art  ever  waiting  to  give  light  to  them 
who  love  the  light:  we  ask  that  this  day,  by  Thy  blessing,  may  bring 


28  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

enlightenment  to  our  minds,  and  that  we  may  come  today  into  contact 
with  the  history  of  the  past,  in  such  a  spirit,  that  its  good  lessons  may 
be  inspiration  to  us  in  the  future.  We  acknowledge  that  all  the  good 
which  this  town  has  ever  enjoyed  is  from  Thee.  We  thank  Thee  for 
the  eminent  men  whose  leadership  this  town  has  enjoyed ;  for  men  of 
commanding  intellect ;  for  men  of  high  moral  purposes :  and  we  thank 
Thee  for  the  many  families  where  that  which  is  good  has  been  loved 
and  the  truth  honored.  We  praise  Thee  for  vast  numbers  of  true  and 
good  lives  and  for  that  divine  influence  and  power  which  has  been  seen 
in  every  generation  since  this  town  began.  We  thank  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  given  this  people  so  high  a  grade  of  Christian  civilization ;  that  in 
so  many  homes  there  has  been  pure  and  affectionate  trust  toward  one 
another ;  and  that  the  life  of  the  people  in  its  general  drift  has  been  so 
much  influenced  by  those  things  which  God  has  given  to  make  morals 
good  and  men  loyal  to  God.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  power  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Grant  that  the  time  may  never  come  when  the 
Christian  religion  shall  have  less  power  than  it  has  today.  Through  it, 
wilt  Thou  make  good  citizens  for  our  town  and  leaders  in  all  that  is 
good.  May  this  day  teach  us,  each  one,  those  things  which  shall  make 
us  pure,  earnest  and  godly  men.  We  ask  this  for  the  sake  of  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord.     Amen. 

The  national  hymn  "To  Thee,  O,  Country,"  set  to  music  by  Eich- 
berg,  was  then  sung  by  the  chorus,  with  orchestral  accompaniment. 
The  words  of  the  hymn  are  as  follows : 

To  thee,  O  country,  great  and  free, 

With  trusting  hearts  we  cling ; 
Our  voices  tuned  by  joyous  love. 

Thy  power  and  praises  sing. 
Upon  thy  mighty,  faithful  heart, 

We  lay  our  burden  down ; 
Thou  art  the  only  friend  who  feels 

Their  weight  without  a  frown. 

For  thee  we  daily  work  and  strive. 

To  thee  we  give  our  love ; 
For  thee  with  fervor  deep  we  pray, 

To  Him  who  dwells  above. 
O  God,  preserve  our  fatherland. 

Let  peace  its  ruler  be, 
And  let  her  happy  kingdom  stretch 

From  north  to  southmost  sea. 


OK    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  29 

Rev.  Daniel  T.  Fiske,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  Belleville  Congregational 
church  of  Newburyport,  then  read  the  following  selections  from  scrip- 
ture, found  in  Psalm  XLiv:  1 — 3;  Psalm  lxxx:  1,  2,  8 — 11;  Psalm 
CXLV:  3 — 7,  13;  and  also  I.  Chronicles,  xxix:  11 — 13. 

We  have  heard  with  our  ears,  O  God,  our  fathers  have  told  us,  what  work  thou 
didst  in  their  dajs,  in  the  times  of  old. 

How  thou  didst  drive  out  the  heathen  with  thy  hand,  and  plantedst  them ;  how 
thou  didst  afflict  the  people,  and  cast  them  out. 

For  they  got  not  the  land  in  possession  by  their  own  sword,  neither  did  their 
own  arm  save  them ;  but  thy  right  hand,  and  thine  arm,  and  the  light  of  thy 
countenance,  because  thou  hadst  a  favor  unto  them. 

Give  ear,  O  Shepherd  of  Israel,  thou  that  leadest  Joseph  like  a  flock;  thou  that 
dwellest  between  the  cherubim,  shine  forth. 

Before  Ephraim  and  Benjamin  and  Manasseh  stir  up  thy  strength,  and  come  and 
save  us. 

Thou  hast  brought  a  vine  out  of  Egypt :  thou  hast  cast  out  the  heathen,  and 
planted  it. 

Thou  preparedst  room  before  it,  and  didst  cause  it  to  take  deep  root,  and  it  filled 
the  land. 

The  hills  were  covered  with  the  shadow  of  it,  and  the  boughs  thereof  were  like 
the  goodly  cedars. 

She  sent  out  her  boughs  unto  the  sea,  and  her  branches  unto  the  river. 

Great  is  the  Lord,  and  greatly  to  be  praised;  and  his  greatness  is  unsearchable. 

One  generation  shall  praise  thy  works  to  another,  and  shall  declare  thy  mighty 
acts. 

I  will  speak  of  the  glorious  honor  of  thy  majesty,  and  of  thy  wondrous  works. 

And  men  shall  speak  of  the  might  of  thy  terrible  acts :  and  I  will  declare  thy 
greatness. 

They  shall  abundantly  utter  the  memory  of  thy  great  goodness,  and  shall  sing 
of  thy  rigliteousness. 

Thy  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  thy  dominion  endureth  throughout 
all  generations. 

Thine,  O  Lord,  is  the  greatness,  and  the  power,  and  the  glorj^  and  the  victory, 
and  the  majesty :  for  all  thiat  is  in  the  heaven  and  in  the  earth  is  thine :  thine  is 
the  kingdom,  O  Lord,  and  thou  art  exalted  as  head  above  all. 

Both  riches  and  honor  come  of  thee,  and  thou  reignest  over  all ;  and  in  thine 
hand  is  power  and  might ;  and  in  thine  hand  it  is  to  make  great,  and  to  give 
strength  unto  all. 

Now,  therefore,  our  God,  we  thank  thee,  and  praise  thy  glorious  name. 

The  Bible  used  on  this  occasion  was  a  copy  of  the  rare  "Breeches 
Bible,"  printed  in  1557,  and  was  kindly  loaned  to  the  Committee  on 
Literary  Exercises  by  Miss  Elizabeth  G.  Hoyt,  of  Chelsea,  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  Bartletts  who  settled  at  Bartlett's  Cove,  in  Newbury, 
in  1635.     The  names  of  several  members  of  that  family,  with  the  dates 


30  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

of  their  birth,  from  1610  to  1624,  are  inscribed  upon  the  pages  of  this 
ancient  Bible. 

The  hymn  "  Pilgrims  and  Wanderers,"  composed  for  the  two  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury  by  the  late  Hon. 
George  Lunt,  and  set  to  original  music  for  this  occasion  by  Norman 
McLeod,  was  then  sung  by  the  chorus: 

Over  the  mountain  wave 

See  where  they  come ; 
Storm-cloud  and  wintry  wind 

Welcome  them  home ; 
Yet  wliere  the  sounding  gale 

Howls  to  the  sea, 
There  their  song  peals  along, 

Deep-toned  and  free : — 
Choeus. — Pilgrims  and  wanderers, 

Hither  we  come ; 
Where  the  free  dare  to  be. 

This  is  our  home  I 

*      England  has  sunny  dales — 
Dearly  they  bloom, 
Scotia  has  heather-hills. 
Sweet  their  perfume, 
Yet  through  the  wilderness 

Cheerful  we  stray. 
Native  land — native  land. 
Home,  far  away ; 
Chorus. — Pilgrims  and  wanderers,  &c. 

Dim  grew  the  forest-path. 

Onward  they  trod ; 
Firm  beat  their  noble  hearts 

Trusting  in  God ! 
Gray  men  and  blooming  maids. 

High  rose  their  song, 
Hear  it  sweep,  clear  and  deep. 

Ever  along ; 
Choetis. — Pilgrims  and  wanderers,  &c. 

Not  theirs  the  glory- wreath 

Tom  by  the  blast ; — 
Heavenward  their  holy  steps, — 

Heavenward  they  past ; 
Green  be  their  mossy  graves ! 

Ours  be  their  fame, 
While  their  song  peals  along, 

Ever  the  same ; 
Choeus. — Pilgrims  and  wanderers,  «&c. 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT   OF   NEWBURY. 


31 


President  Currier  then  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  A  poem,  written  at  the  request  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Literary  Exercises,  by  a  native  and  former  resident  of  New- 
buryport,  will  now  be  read,  and  it  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  intro- 
duce to  you  the  author,  Mrs.  Louisa  Parsons  Hopkins,  of  New  Bedford 
— a  descendant  of  the  Parsons,  Gyles  and  Stone  families  of  Old  New- 
bury— who  has  won  for  herself  a  reputation  not  unworthy  of  her  dis- 
tinguished ancestors. 

ODE  BY  MRS.  LOUISA  P.  HOPKINS. 


As  when  from  some  rich-freighted  bark 
That  sails  beyond  us  to  the  dark 

To  join  an  out-bound  argosy, 

We  catch  the  parting  melody 
Over  the  dim  horizon's  verge, — 
A  friend's  farewell,  a  poet's  dirge, — 
So  swells  his  harp's  harmonious  strain 
Who  sung  of  yore  and  sings  again. 
The  minstrel*  whose  exultant  lay 
Breathed  forth  your  earlier  festal  day. 
Hallowed  by  his  own  youthful  lyre. 
Which  ne'er  has  lost  its  pristine  fire. 
Death's  sacred  grove  was  consecrate;t 

Its  plaintive  cadence  trembles  still 

Above  that  silent  vale  and  hill 
Where  now, — so  late, — 
He,  of  that  gentler  generation  last, 

To  laurelled  shades  liath  passed ; 
Yea,  with  his  swan-song  on  his  lips. 
He  met  life's  sunset-cloud's  eclipse. 
For  while  he  kindly  stayed  to  sing 
Death's  angel  plumed  her  soft  white  wing. 
And  old  companions  greeted  him,  and  led 
To  the  more  populous  city  of  the  dead. 
The  flowing  numbers  we  may  hear  no  more 
Seem  to  re-echo  from  that  further  shore. 
All  eloquent  with  spirit-voices  sweet, 

That  through  his  notes  repeat 
Their  loyalty  and  love  our  filial  hearts  to  greet. 

II. 


The  elder  generations,  pioneers 
Of  the  eventful  years ! 


♦Hon.  Georg'e  Lunt. 

tHe  -wrote  the  hymn  of  dedication  of  Oak  Hill  Cemetery. 


32  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

Noble  were  they  and  true,  of  cultured  thought 
With  ceremony  sweet,  refinement  pure, — 
A  type  which  through  all  hazards  must  endure, 

And  into  various  circumstance  be  wrought. 
O,  not  for  sordid  greed, 
Nor  for  the  transient  meed 

Of  the  world's  empty  praise  they  lived  and  died, 
But  with  heroic  aim 
And  God-ward  eye  they  came 

To  plant  Truth's  fertile  seed, 

With  steadfast  heart  to  do  their  faithful  deed, 
And  our  inheritance  so  glorified. 

III. 

Fain  would  we  wander  back 

Along  that  shining  track, 
Their  honored  names  with  grateful  bays  entwine 
And  trace  the  thread  of  that  immortal  line. 

But  in  the  church-yard  green 

Their  reverend  names  are  seen ; 
The  multitudinous  chorus  of  the  birds 

Pours  out  love's  winged  words, 
The  dear  memorial  chaplets  of  the  trees 

Are  spread  upon  their  graves 

'Mid  summer's  emerald  waves, — 
Waftage  of  each  caressing  breeze  ; 
Even  their  dust  blooms  out  in  beauteous  forms, 

The  golden  sunshine  warms 
And  vivifies  their  bodily  elements 
To  resurrection's  glorious  intents. 

The  lily  and  the  rose 
Earth's  lavish  powers  of  alchemy  disclose. 

Kind  nature  clothes  again 

The  dust  of  mortal  men. 
And  e'en  death's  crumbling  cerement,  lent 
To  beauty's  use,  with  all  June's  loveliness  is  blent." 

IV, 

Successive  seasons  sing  for  them 

Undying  requiem : 
Sweet  chants  of  Spring,  anthems  of  Summer's  psalm 

Of  Autumn's  riper  calm, 
With  selahs  deep  of  infinite  repose 

In  Winter's  shrouding  snows. 
So  gathered  to  our  fathers  we  would  lie 
Kindred  beneath  Heaven's  starry  canopy, 
Perchance  some  recognition  stirs  their  dust 
As  we  commit  new  treasures  to  their  trust ; 
Perchance  they  hear  again  the  ocean's  rote 
Roll  up  the  valley  from  the  harbor's  throat 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF   NEWBURY.  83 

When  billows  wild  careen 

The  sand-dunes'  amber  sheen, 
Or  feel  the  salt  wind  of  the  marshes  sweep 
Through  the  encampment  of  their  peaceful  sleep. 
They  loved  Old  Newbury's  pleasant  vales  and  slopes, 

And  built  their  mighty  hopes 
Upon  the  solid  granite  of  her  hills  ; 
Her  river-falls,  torrents  of  snow-fed  rills 
And  crystal  springs,  their  clear,  pure  lives  expressed. 
And  to  high  tasks  their  willing  hands  addressed. 

V. 

By  this  fair  land  they  moored  their  bark  to  raise 

Unwavering  hjTnn  of  praise. 
They  came,  so  simply  the  quaint  records  tell, 
" From  England's  stately  homes"  they  loved  full  well. 
"For  conscience  and  religion's  sake,"  to  dwell 
"Amid  this  wilderness,"  by  God's  good  grace. 
To  rear  in  Quascucunquen,*  Newbury'st  race. 
This  goodly  land,  sea-fronting  levels  wide. 

Their  earnest  gaze  espied. 
Ripe  for  the  planting  of  a  continent ; 
So  to  God's  purposes  obedient 
They  occupied  the  hill-side  and  the  plain, — 

The  Old  World's  golden  grain 
Of  manhood  to  God's  vaster  granaries  come, — 

They  grasped  the  riotous  main. 
The  lordly  Merrimack  they  held  in  fief 

For  freedom's  full  relief. 
And  opened  sluice-ways  through  the  realms  of  time 

For  destinies  sublime. 

VI. 
Now  the  rich  centuries  have  come  and  gone, 
That  undiminished  heritage  moves  on. 
O'er  white  sierras  and  the  prairied  lea, 
From  torrid  gulf  to  grand  Pacific  sea. 

Round  the  lake's  mighty  chain. 
Broadcast  they  scatter  Truth's  replete  seed-grain. 
Fresh  airs  they  carry  from  the  clime  they  love 

Where'er  their  feet  may  rove. 
The  strong  winds  of  our  coast  accumulate 

To  conquer  stubborn  fate, 
Our  rock-ribbed  sands  and  salt  waves'  vigor  pure 
Transmuted  to  the  soul  that  can  endure. 


*Indian  name  of  Newburj-. 

tSo  named  from  the  English  home  of  some  of  the  settlers. 


34  TWO    HUNDBED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

In  the  far-seeing  thought  and  cultured  brain 
Our  clear,  deep  skies  remain, 

The  eager  pulse  and  close-knit  fibre's  strain 
Our  native  stock  maintain, 

And  Newbury's  tide  of  life-blood  roll 

"With  her  last  hero*  to  the  baffling  pole. 

VII. 
Ah  I  backward  for  a  few  short  years  we  turn 

To  deck  their  votive  urn — 

Heroes  of  Sixty-one ! 
Whose  regal  expiation  done, 
For  freedom  the  eternal  years  have  won. 
With  banners  graced  and  garlands  fair. 
Their  fame  be  still  their  country's  care. 

So  glorious  the  race  they  run. 
But  in  fond  hearts  their  precious  memory  hid 

Swell  the  hot  tears  unbid. 
That  all  our  deathless  love  and  pride  attest, 
—Ah  me  I  how  cherished  and  how  blest 

Their  martyr-rest. — 
They  sweetly  sleep  while  in  new  veins 
The  fine  heroic  blood  remains. 

Their  fresh  hearts  burned  with  fires 

Kindled  by  patriot-sires ; 

In  them  the  fathers  rose 

To  conquer  freedom's  foes. 
Now  on  the  altar  of  their  sacrifice 
We  dedicate  our  children's  children,  wise 
To  give  the  past's  best  gifts  to  future  centuries. 

VIII. 

So  in  our  country's  history 

A  strong  posterity 
Shall  shape  the  mould  of  liberty's  new  birth ; 
Her  builders  still  shall  rear  the  towers  of  earth. 

Through  all  their  fruitful  line. 

Branches  of  one  rich  vine. 

The  fathers'  lives  Iiave  wrought 

A  priceless  legacy : 
Transmitted  power,  organic  will  and  thought. 
The  child  reveals  the  grandsire,  each  brain-cell 
The  true  ancestral  prophecy  shall  tell; 
Some  subtile  trick  of  manner  or  of  speech 

The  pedigree  shall  teach  ; 
The  dead  still  speak  in  voices  fresh  and  young. 
Each  sequent  generation  finds  a  tongue. 


♦Lieut.  A.  W.  Greely. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT   OF    NEWBURY.  35 

rx. 

We  bless  the  saints  who  prayed  for  us,*  so  we 
Would  praj'  for  our  unborn  posterity. 

And  to  our  heirs  bequeath 

Soul-powers  transcending  death — 
The  right  divine  of  true  heredity. 
Through  us  descend  clear  spiritual  sight, 

Enlightened  mind  still  to  discern  the  right.  ' 

Obedient  will  to  do,  endurance  sweet, — 

God's  staff  for  trembling  feet ; 
Unwavering  faith,  as  seeing  the  \inseen, 
Knowing  on  whom  we  have  believed, 
Not  comprehending  all  His  mysteries  mean, 

Yet  on  his  grace  to  lean. 
Freely  we  ask  to  give  as  freely  we  received. 

X. 

We  build  today  upon  a  larger  plan 

The  coming  man. 
The  ancient  race  to  higher  outlook  strides. 
On  broader  seas  our  ship  at  anchor  rides  ; 

The  age's  fashion 
Still  clothes  afresh  Truth's  fair  ideal, 

And  each  great  aim  made  real 
Lifts  faith  and  work  to  loftier  heights  of  passion. 
Nor  we,  mayhap,  may  grasp  the  span 
Of  our  last  harvesting,  the  seed 
To  crown  the  future  with  exalted  deed 
Not  yet  is  sifted  by  Time's  winnowing-fan. 
Haply  the  poet's  dream  shall  hold, 
And  nature's  age  of  gold 
Complete  the  cycle  of  humanity. 
When  the  full  time  is  ripe, 
Is  bom  the  perfect  type ; 
God's  plan  evolves  the  race  that  is  to  be, — 
When  all  the  soul-activities  are  free 
And  life's  full  chord  is  perfect  harmony. 

XI. 

But  while  the  generations  fall  asleep. 

Sow  the  good  seed  ye  reap. 
Build  on  the  old  foundations  firm  and  sure 

The  virtues  that  endure ; 

Revere  the  ancient  rule 

Of  church  and  school ; 
Lift  the  proud  pile  by  each  well-tempered  tool, 


*Rcv.  Joua.  Parsons  obsenred  an  annual  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  for  his  posterity. 


S6  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

And,  though  to  vast  expansions  grown, 
Integrity  be  still  the  corner  stone — 
Honor  and  purity  alone 

Rear  its  proportions  true, 
While  faith  shall  round  the  dome 

Up  to  the  spheric  blue. 
There  strong-winged  Hope  shall  fly 
Through  widening  arcs  of  love's  refulgent  sky, 
In  that  grand  temple  all  our  growing  race 

Shall  gather  face  to  face 

In  their  eternal  home, — 
For  Thou,  O  Lord,  hast  been  our  dwelling-place. 

After  the  reading  of  the  ode  by  Mrs.  Hopkins,  President  Curriei 
said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Standing  here  today,  surrounded  by  the 
comforts  of  modern  civilization,  it  is  diiRcult  to  realize  the  suffering 
and  privation  endured  by  those  who  planted  their  homes  in  this  wilder- 
ness in  1635.  It  is  especially  desirable  on  this  occasion  that  we  should 
turn  our  thoughts  backward  to  the  events  that  have  made  the  past 
memorable  in  our  local  history,  and  briefly  review  the  lives  and  char- 
acters of  those  who  have  given  strength  and  stability  to  our  institu- 
tions. With  this  object  in  view  the  committee  of  ai-rangements  have 
invited  a  distinguished  descendant  of  one  of  the  old  Newbury  families 
to  address  you.  By  ties  of  kinship  as  well  as  by  scholarly  acquire- 
ments he  is  qualified  to  speak  to  you  upon  the  topic  that  is  today  of 
special  and  peculiar  interest  to  you  all.  I  have  the  honor  to  introduce 
to  you  Samuel  Coloord  Bartlett,  President  of  Dartmouth  College. 

When  the  applause  that  greeted  this  announcement  had  siibsided, 
President  Bartlett,  advancing  to  the  front  of  the  platform,  proceeded 
to  deliver  the  following  historical  address,  which  was  listened  to  with 
great  interest  during  its  delivery,  and  warmly  applauded  at  its  close : 

ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL  COLCORD  BARTLETT,  D.  D.  LL.  D. 

Ladies  and  Gtrithmeii: 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  December,  1(334,  the  town  of 
Agawam  consented  "  that  John  Perkins,  junior,  should 
build  a  weir  on  the  river  Quascacunquen."  But  "  in  case 
a  plantation  should  there  settle,  he  is  to  submit  himself 
to  such  conditions  ae  shall  by  them  be  imposed." 

This  proviso  was  a  prophecy.     Already  the  eye  of  the 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    XEWBURY.  37 

colonist  was  fixed  upon  the  spot.  The  praises  of  the 
place  had  been  sounded  in  the  mother  country.  One 
William  Wood  had  returned  to  England  in  1G33,  after 
four  years'  residence  in  Massachusetts,  and  published  in 
London,  "A  true,  lively  and  experimental  description  of 
that  part  of  America  commonly  called  Xew  England." 
In  his  review  of  all  the  settlements,  actual  and  prospec- 
tive, he  7-eserves  his  choicest  for  the  last.  "Agawam,"he 
says,  "is  the  best  place  but  one,  which  is  Merrimack,  lying 
eight  miles  beyond  it,  where  is  a  river  twenty  leagues 
navigable.  All  along  the  river  are  fresh  marshes,  in  some 
places  three  miles  broad.  In  this  river  is  sturgeon,  salmon 
and  bass,  and  divers  other  kinds  of  fishes.  To  conclude, 
the  country  hath  not  that  which  this  place  doth  not  yield." 
His  Merrimack  was  our  Newbury.  And  while  his  meas- 
urements may  be  assigned  to  that  part  of  his  narrative 
which  he  calls  '^  lively,"  his  report  of  the  general  excel- 
lence of  the  site  belongs  to  that  part  which  may  be 
termed  "  true."  We  know  the  place  as  it  was  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago.  A  miscellaueous  growth  of 
trees — alder,  poplar,  pine,  white  oak  and  hickory,  stretched 
across  the  township.  The  streams  on  its  borders  so 
abounded  in  fish  that  the  sturgeon  gave  name  to  the  Mer- 
rimack. The  harbor  was  inviting  and  ample  for  the  small 
craft  of  the  times.  '^Fhe  general  level,  varied  with  hill 
and  easy  slope,  oflered  a  wide  range  of  fertile  "  meadow, 
marsh  and  upland."  Green  islands  dotted  the  bosom  of 
the  Merrimack  and  skirted  the  harbor.  The  northward 
outlook  from  the  hill-tops  terminated  with  the  round  sum- 
mit of  Agamenticus,  while  eastward  the  glistening  waters 
of   the   ocean  stretched  boundlessly  away.     Blackbirds, 


38  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

woodpeckers,  jays  and  crows  filled  the  air  with  their  notes. 
Wolves  prowled  around,  and  foxes,  red  and  silver-grey, 
ranged  the  fields  and  forests.  For  a  century  yet  was  the 
straggling  moose  to  be  shot  on  the  northern  bank  of  the 
Merrimack,  and  wandering  wild  geese  killed  on  Plum 
Island ;  while  later  still  the  occasional  bear  crossed  Ilsley's 
hill,  and  the  wild  deer  hurried  through  the  streets  of 
^V^est  K^ewbury  to  the  woods  of  Cape  Ann.  *'  Great  Tom 
the  Indian"  now  had  his  wigwam  by  Indian  Hill,  "John 
Indian"  apparently  near  "the  Lower  Green,"  and  John 
Perkins,  no  doubt,  was  tending  his  fish-traps  on  the 
Quascacunquen. 

Such  was  the  sylvan  scene.  Meanwhile  a  band  of  set- 
tlers was  wintering  in  Agawam,  and  waiting  only  for  the 
spring,  to  disturb  the  solitude  of  John  Perkins,  and  in 
due  time  to  buy  out  all  the  "right,  title  and  interest"  held 
by  Great  Tom  and  his  congeners  in  the  "woods,  com- 
mons and  lands"  of  old  Newburv. 

The  township  names  of  this  whole  regicm  around  us  be- 
tray the  origin  of  its  colonists.  In  a  narrow  belt  that 
stretches  across  the  southern  counties  of  England,  lie  the 
towns  of  Newbury,  Salisbui'y,  Marlboro,  Amesbury  and 
Bradford ;  while  in  another  belt,  some  forty  miles  to  the 
north,  are  the  towns  of  Ipswich,  Haverhill,  Byfield  and 
Hampton.  It  marks  the  afiectionate  memories  still  cling- 
ing to  the  mother  land,  that  these  became  names  of  the 
new  homes  beyond  the  ocean,  and  were,  most  of  them, 
again  transplanted  to  the  hills  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont. 

The  ninety-one  first  proprietors — not  all  first  settlers — 
of  Newbuiy,  were  a  colony  complete  and  well  equipped. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT   OF   NEWBrRY.  39 

They  i-epresented  the  best  working  forces  of  southern 
England.  There  were  two  scholarly  ministers,  several 
land  owners  and  men  of  property,  two  or  three  merchants, 
*' yeomen,"  carpenters,  tanners,  wheelwrights,  blacksmiths, 
shoemakers,  weavers,  a  physician,  a  sea-captain  and  mate, 
a  cooper,  a  saddler,  a  dyer,  even  a  glover,  and — last  but 
not  least — a  maltster.  Old  families  of  England  were  rep- 
resented in  some  of  their  younger  bran(;hes,  who  had 
turned  Puritan  and  come  hither  to  seek  their  fortunes. 
The  University  of  Oxford,  which  lies  just  midway  be- 
tween Newbury  and  Byfield  in  England, — thirty  miles 
from  each, — contributed  its  share  in  the  persons  of  Thomas 
Parker  and  James  Noyes, — the  one  a  student  of  Magda- 
len, the  other  of  Brazennose  college, — the  former  bearing 
the  reputation  of  eminent  scholarship,  the  latter  "well 
skilled  in  Greek,  and  well  read  in  the  Schoolmen  and 
Fathers." 

Such  was  the  goodly  company,  of  which  the  first  band 
— some  twenty-three  in  number,  with  their  families — 
might  have  been  seen  one  morning  in  the  spring  of  16.-55 
sailing  through  Plum  Island  sound  and  up  Parker  river, 
to  a  spot  on  the  northern  bank,  a  hundred  rods  below  the 
present  bridge.  And  there  Nicholas  Noyes  first  leaped 
on  shore. 

Unfortunately  the  men  who  make  history  seldom  write 
it.  Of  the  new  experiences  and  stirring  events,  one  char- 
acteristic fact  alone  is  handed  down.  On  a  Sunday,  per- 
haps in  June,  we  might  have  seen  them  gathered  beneath 
a  spreading  oak  to  listen  to  a  sermon  on  church  polity 
and  discij)line,  then  joining  in  solemn  covenant,  and,  by 
vote  of  the  uplifted  hand,  electing  Thomas  Parker  and 


40  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

James  Noyes  their  pastor  and  teacher.  All  the  stir  of 
active  life  began  at  once:  a  meeting-house  erected  and  a 
house  for  the  ministers,  house-lots  assigned  within  a 
half-mile  of  the  meeting-house,  planting  lots,  meadow 
lots,  and  a  great  tract  for  pasturage  laid  out,  an  ordinary 
licensed,  and,  before  the  year's  end,  the  birth  of  Mary 
Brown,  the  first  white  child. 

With  the  assembling  of  the  Long  Pai-liament  in  1640 
and  the  impeachment  of  Strafford  and  Laud,  all  emigra- 
tion ceased.     But  Old  Newbury  had  now  become  a  well 
organized   settlement,  with  its  mill  at  the  Falls  and  its 
ferry  at  Carr's  Island,  with  its  town-meetings  and  fines 
for  non-attendance,  its  seven  men  or  selectmen,  its  con- 
stables and  highway  surveyors,  its  physician  exempt  from 
taxes,  its  schoolmaster,  its  public  notary  and  register,  its 
merchants,  its    herdsmen,  hay  wards  and   shipmaster,  its 
pound  for  stray  cattle  and  its  stocks  for  bad  men,  its  sen- 
tinels to  stand  guard  "  with  arms  complete"  during  church 
service,  and  its  politics  so  high   that  ten  of   its   freemen 
footed  it  forty  miles  to  Cambridge  to  elect  John  Win- 
throp  governor  and  defeat  Henry  Yane.     It  was  the  au- 
spicious beginning  of  an  intelligent,  active  and  thriving 
community.     They  grappled  at  once  with  the  new  work 
of  their  changed  condition,  and  rapidly  cleared  themselves 
of  the  bondage  of  the  past.     It  is  diflScult  for  us  to  con- 
ceive the  vast  transition  from  the  humdrum  of  stereotyped 
village  life  in  England  to  the  bustle  and  whirl  of  a  new 
colony  in  America.    It  was  a  forth-putting  in  every  line  of 
action  and  of  legislation.     The  early  records  tell  the  tale 
of  incessant,  multifarious  enterprise — the  busy  hum  of  the 
young  swarm  in  the  new  hive.     It  is  a  story  of  gi-ants, 


OK    THK    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEVVBtRY.  41 

boundaries,  taxes,  exemptions,  farms,  mills,  bridges, 
wharves,  highways,  and  ordinaries,  offers  to  capitalists  and 
settlers,  encouragement  to  ])hysicians  and  school-masters, 
to  fishermen  and  tanners,  provision  for  the  poor,  care  of  the 
public  lands  and  timber,  and  bounties  on  the  birds  and 
beasts  destructive  to  flocks  and  crops,  and  the  universal 
oversight  of  the  public  morals,  i^othing  was  beyond  the 
range  of  the  town  meeting  and  the  selectmen.  But  the 
church  and  the  school  were  the  pet  themes. 

With  what  loving  minuteness  did  they  legislate  on  the 
location  of  the  meeting-house,  the  pay  of  the  minister, 
the  construction  of  the  galleries,  the  admission  of  pews, 
the  seating  of  all  the  worshippers,  the  puichase  of  a  bell, 
the  choice  of  a  bell-man  and  the  sending  of  a  boy  to  tell 
him  when  to  ring  the  first  and  second  bells,  with  a  flag  to 
be  hung  out  at  the  first  aiid  taken  in  at  the  second,  the 
tolling  of  the  bell  till  the  minister  comes,  the  nine  o'clock 
bell  at  night,  the  winging  down  of  the  ])rincipal  seats  af- 
ter sweeping,  the  appointment  of  a  precentor  to  "tune 
the  psalm,"  and  even  the  seat  he  should  occupy, — "  the 
fore  seat  in  the  south  body "' — the  employment  of  tything 
men  to  see  that  all  the  families  "attend  the  public  w^oi- 
ship  of  God."  and,  alas,  to  keep  the  boys  in  order  when 
there.  And  with  what  strenuous  and  pei-sistent  earnest- 
ness did  they  maintain  the  graver  matters  of  rehgion  and 
the  church. 

And  next  the  church  in  their  thoughts  lay  the  school. 
One  of  the  first  ministers  was  the  first  schoolmaster.  In 
three  yeai's  came  Anthony  Somerby,  encouraged  "to  keep 
school  for  one  year"  by  the  grant  of  "  four  acres  of  up- 
land and  six  acres  of  salt  maish."     Symbolically  enough 


42    •  ,         TWO    HUNDftED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

the  school  was  first  kept  in  the  meeting-house,  then  for  a 
time  in  the  watch-house,  then  in  pi-ivate  residences,  and 
at  length  in  the  school-house  proper.  The  successive 
bargains  with  the  schoolmaster  and  with  the  Latin  school 
master,  provision  for  a  school-house,  a  "free  school,"  a 
grammar  school,  and  (in  1694)  "for  the  accommodation 
of  a  good  and  suiRcient  school  dame," — and  the  like — are 
prominent  mattei  s  of  town  record  throughout  the  history. 

These  early  lecords  are  not  wanting  in  quaintness. 
When  Captain  Paul  White  was  granted  half  an  acre  of 
land  "provided  he  do  build  a  dock  and  warehouse,"  the 
town  "granteth  no  liberty  of  freehold  or  commonage 
upon  it,  and  if  he  shall  hereafter  sell  it,  the  town  shall 
have  the  forsaking  of  it;"  and  the  description  of  the  half- 
acre  was  this:  "At  the  end  of  Fish  street  joyneing  to 
Merrimack  river  on  the  northwest,  and  from  the  river  by 
the  great  rocks  in  a  strait  line  to  a  stake  by  the  way,  and 
from  that  stake  to  another  stake  westerly  by  another 
great  rock,  and  from  a  stake  lunning  over  part  of  the 
rock  upon  a  strait  lyne  westward  to  another  stake  by  the 
rock." 

I*^otwithstanding  this  pi-ecariousness  of  tenure  and  am- 
biguity of  description.  Captain  White  built  the  dock  and 
got  the  land.  And  nigh  two  centuries  before  the  coining 
or  imagining  of  the  phrase  "  woman's  rights,"  a  coroner's 
jury  of  twelve  women  held  an  inquest  over  Elizabeth 
Hunter,  and  they  declared  "according  to  their  best  light 
and  contiens  that  the  death  of  said  Elizabeth,  was  not  by 
any  wrong  or  violence  done  to  her  by  any  parson  or  thing, 
but  by  some  sudden  stopping  of  her  breath." 

Our  fathers   had    their   incidental  peculiarities.      But 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURV.  MX*  "^^ 

these  have  in  later  days  been  dragged  out  into  enormous 
and  often  exclusive  prominence.  Our  ancestors  were  men 
and  women  like  ourselves,  but  I  think  better  and  nobler, 
more  just  and  conscientious,  more  earnest  and  true.  They 
had  as  clear  heads,  live  hearts  and  tender  sympathies  as 
we.  Thej'  had  their  virtues  and  imperfections;  but  the 
virtues  were  substantial,  the  imperfections  superficial. 
Newbury  was  not  an  Arcadia.  It  had  its  troubles.  There 
was  in  1639  "  much  disturbance  in  the  public  meeting  by 
reason  of  divers  speaking  at  one  and  the  same  time." 
Offenders  were  not  wanting.  One  man  was  fined  for 
selling  strong  water  without  a  license,  another  for  suffer- 
ing five  Indians  to  be  drunk  at  his  house,  a  third  for  sell- 
ing Indians  liquoi-  on  the  Lord's  day.  This  man  was  put 
in  the  stocks  for  abusive  carriage  to  his  wife  and  child; 
that  man  was  presented  for  reproachful  speeches  cast  on 
the  elders  and  others  at  a  public  chuich  meeting,  and 
one  woman  was  presented  for  "using  reproachful  lan- 
guage unto  Goody  Silver,"  "base  lying  divell,  base  lying 
tode."  One  of  the  chief  proprietors  was  "  bound  over  in 
sixty-six  pounds,  thirteen  shillings  and  sixpence  for  con- 
temptuous speech  and  carriage  to  Mr.  Saltonstall."  Nay 
the  wife  of  Joseph  Swett  was  presented  and  fined  for 
wearing  a  silk  hood  and  scarf  when  her  husband  was 
worth  less  than  two  hundred  pounds,  though  it  is  griev- 
ous to  relate  that  four  other  wives,  whose  husbands  were 
worth  more  than  two  hundred  pounds,  were  by  laAV  per- 
mitted to  flaunt  in  all  the  silken  gorgeousness  of  hood  and 
scarf.  Such  sumptuary  laws  as  this,  however,  came  down 
fi'om  England  under  Elizabeth,  and  all  the  influence  of 
the  magistrate  could  not  keep  them  alive. 


44  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

Their  peculiarities  were  often  not  pecnliar.  Some  of 
them  were  but  the  universal  stain  of  the  age,  not  all 
washed  out  in  the  ocean  voyage,  but  soon  to  fade  away. 
Our  fathers  had  cleared  themselves  at  a  bound  from  such 
a  mass  of  the  exuviae  of  the  mother  country,  that  the  few 
remaining  spots  have  attracted  the  world's  attention  by 
the  very  contrast.  Some  of  the  [)eculiarities  were  but  an 
intense  recoil  from  the  mummeries  of  an  effete  religion 
and  from  all  its  outward  badges.  The  cross  on  the  king's 
colors  was  to  them  the  "relique  of  anti-Christian  super- 
stition." The  organ  long  seemed  to  them  as  they  had 
seen  it  used,  a  papistical  device.  They  were  slow  to  ad- 
mit what  they  called  dumb-reading  of  the  scriptures,  that 
is,  reading  without  comment,  because  associated  in  their 
minds  with  the  unintelligent  readings  and  recitings  of 
Romanism.  They  had  come  out  of  the  thick  of  the  bat- 
tle, and  these  things  seemed  to  them  as  the  stars  and  bars 
seemed  to  a  Union  soldier  after  years  of  hard  and  bloody 
warfare.  These  things  had  become  to  them  the  very 
badge  and  banner  of  a  ruinous  superstition,  and  they  re- 
coiled from  them  with  an  intensity  almost  like  that  with 
which  their  posterity  recoiled  from  using  or  pei-mitting  to 
use  the  petty  stamps  which  marked  their  subjection  to  a 
despotic  power  beyond  the  ocean. 

But  there  are  two  famous  topics  connected  with  the 
region,  on  which  I  wish  to  say  that  vastly  too  much  has 
been  said  already ;  and  that  much  of  the  censure  has  been 
as  one-eyed  and  heedless  as  much  of  the  concession  and 
defence  has  been  mistaken  and  needless.  I  refer  to  the 
mattei'  of  Quakers  and  witches.  Here  the  blame  for  the 
boundless  sins  of  the  ages  and  nations  has  been  brought 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF   NEWBURY.  45 

and  laid  at  the  door,  so  to  speak,  of  infinitesimal  and 
transient  sinners,  repentant  too;  and  so  the  accumulated 
vials  of  wrath  have  been  poured  out  on  the  least  of  all 
the  offenders.  There  was  grave  wrong-doing.  But  it  is 
time  that  the  blows  dealt  were  propoilioned  to  the  offence 
and  the  offenders. 

Old  Newbury,  indeed,  never  had  witch  nor  Quaker 
hung.  But  it  is  true  that  seventeen  witnesses  bore  testi- 
mony against  Elizabeth  Morse  as  a  witch,  and  that  she 
was  condemned,  reprieved,  and  barely  saved.  It  is  also 
true  that  IN^ewbury  men  were  fined  for  entertaining  Qua- 
kers. But  it  is  fair  to  remember  that  in  the  same  year  in 
which  John  Emery  was  fined  four  pounds  for  this  last  of- 
fence, and  Lydia  Wardwell,  the  Quakeress,  was  severely 
whipped,  the  same  Lydia  Wardwell  had  already  presented 
herself  naked  in  the  meeting-house  at  Newbury.  And  if 
the  young  colony,  in  its  weakness,  by  law  excluded  a  con- 
flicting and  at  that  time  disorderly  element  from  its  nar- 
row precincts,  wherein  was  the  government  more  blame- 
worthy than  the  Congress  of  these  United  States,  which 
in  the  hour  of  greatness  and  strength,  and  with  two  hun- 
dred years  of  additional  light,  today  prohibits  Chinese 
laborers  from  entering  this  broad  land.  And  wiien  on 
the  fourth  of  Mai'ch,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1885,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  declares  to  the  nation  that 
"these  prohibitory  laws  must  be  rigidly  enforced,"  and 
the  listening  multitude  applaud  with  cheer  upon  cheer, 
what  has  the  nineteenth  century  to  say  to  the  seventeeth? 
When,  therefore,  an  English  historian  of  our  time  goes  out 
of  his  w^ay  to  remark  that  "the  Puritans  fleeing  from  per- 
secution to  'New  England,  put  people   to  death  for  no 


46  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

other  crime  than  that  the}'  preached  doctrines  differing 
from  their  own,"  we  will  not  raise  the  question  whether  it 
was  solely  for  opinion's  sake,  nor  will  we  dilate  on  the 
persistent  eagerness  that  lushed  upon  martyrdom,  nor  will 
we  frame  an  apology.  Yet  we  will  turn  and  ask  him  if 
he  knows  how  extensive  was  the  martyrdom,  and  how  it 
compares  with  similar  scenes  in  modern  history.  For  the 
imagination  reverts  at  once  to  the  hundred  thousand  vic- 
tims burned,  strangled,  beheaded,  and  buried  alive  in  the 
Netherlands  by  order  of  the  illustrous  Charles  Fifth;  to 
the  thirty  thousand  lives  destroyed  and  the  290,000  sav- 
age punishments  inflicted  in  Spain  by  the  Inquisition  be- 
fore the  end  of  that  century;  to  the  Auto-da-fe  at  Lis- 
bon, a  century  after  the  Quaker  delusion,  where  fifty  her- 
etics were  put  to  death  at  one  festivity;  or  perhaps  to 
"•Merrie  England"  with  its  tortures  and  fires,  and  its 
hundreds  of  victims  dragged  to  death  solely  for  opinion's 
sake; — and  we  ask  again,  how  many  were  the  Quaker 
martyrs  in  the  whole  history  of  Massachusetts?  They 
were  just  four,  all  told.  And  these  were  just  four  too 
many.  But  the  law  itself  had  been  enacted  by  the  ma- 
jority of  a  single  vote. 

And  when  we  speak  of  the  witchcraft  delusion,  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  be  somewhat  deluded  too.  Our  fore- 
fathers' folly  was  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket,  or  rather  in  the 
river,  of  infatuation  that  had  been  streaming  down  upon 
them  from  the  past,  and  was  sweeping  by  them  into  the 
future.  It  was  incorporated  in  literature,  embodied  in  the 
law,  and  entrenched  in  the  religious  belief  of  the  ages. 
There  was  at  that  very  time,  and  for  forty  years  more,  a 
law  on  the  statute  book  of  England,  defining  carefully 


OF    THK    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  47 

the  crime  of  witchcraft,  and  making  the  penalty  "death 
without  benefit  of  clergy."  The  number  of  witches  exe- 
cuted in  England  during  the  first  eighty  3ears  of  that 
century,  has  been  estimated  at  forty  thousand,*  of  whom 
three  thousand  were  destroyed  in  the  time  of  the  Long 
Parliament  alone.  Witches  were  officially  executed  in 
Great  Britain  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  in  Germany  a 
full  century,  after  the  last  execution  in  Xew  England. 
And  now  in  this  mass  of  folly  that  filled  the  whole  civil- 
ized world,  what  was  N^ew  England's  share?  How  many 
were  actually  put  to  death?  Xineteen,  all  told.  And 
then  the  delusion  passed  away  forever,  overwhelmed  by 
the  mighty  force  of  universal  sentiment — one  judge  mak- 
ing public  confession  of  his  wrong  and  observing  through 
life  the  anniversary  of  his  first  sentence  as  a  day  of  peni- 
tence, fasting  and  i)iayer,  the  twelve  jurymen  publishing 
a  recantation  and  appeal  for  forgiveness  for  their  "sad 
delnsion,"  the  leading  church  revoking  its  action  and 
forcing  out  its  minister,  and  the  General  Court  at  length 
reversing  its  convictions  and  attainders,  and  granting 
money  payments  to  surviving  relatives.  'No  other  land 
ever  witnessed  a  fui'or  so  brief,  a  reaction  so  profound,  or 
a  repentance  so  deep  And  if  men  still  pride  themselves 
on  the  superiority  of  our  times  to  such  delusions,  we 
point  them  to  the  "Spiritism"  of  our  day,  and  the  absurd 
gibberish  and  inane  tricks  which  its  votaries  have  some- 
times accepted  as  coming  from  the  spirits  of  the  once  in- 
telligent dead. 

*Charles  3Iackay's  Popular  Delusions,  vol.  II.  p.  141.  (London,  1869),  Mac- 
kay  gives  also  the  number  for  the  thirty-nine  years  previous  to  the  accession  of 
James  First  (in  1603)  at  seventeen  thousand.     II.  p.  135. 


48  TWO    HINDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

In  all  these  things  our  ancestors  weie  in  advance  of 
their  age.  And  the  attention  that  has  been  directed  to 
their  remaining  errors  is  absurdly  disproportionate.  So 
long  as  perfection  is  not  claimed  for  them,  they  need  no 
special  defence.  They  had  high  ideals  and,  with  fallible 
judgments,  they  strove  to  realize  them.  They  framed 
theii"  lives  to  the  standard  of  the  Scriptures,  but  they  may 
have  made  the  frame  too  narrow.  Some  of  their  inconsis- 
tencies were  their  too  rigid  consistencies.  We  do  not 
care  to  apologize  for  them,  except  as  sharing  our  common 
humanity.  We  simply  say,  show  us  better  men  if  you 
can,  before  them,  or  since,  or  now. 

Their  business  was  conducted  on  Christian  principles. 
They  dealt  equitably  with  the  few  straggling  natives  that 
were  found  upon  their  territory.  John  Indian  had  a  lot 
assigned  him  in  the  new  town;  Great  Tom  was  bought 
out.  And  more  than  sixty  years  after  the  first  occupa- 
tion, the  selectmen  extinguished  by  formal  purchase  the 
last  claim  presented  by  the  helpless  grandson  of  the  old 
Sagamore  Masconomo.  The  only  transactions  that  dis- 
turbed the  quiet  of  the  early  days  grew  out  of  the  strong 
hold  of  their  principles  upon  their  whole  life.  If  from 
time  to  time  there  were  earnest  struggles  over  the  very 
location  of  their  meeting-houses,  it  was  because  the  house 
of  God  was  the  visible  symbol  and  centre  of  all  their 
hopes  and  purposes.  And  when  thei'c  arose,  ten  years 
from  the  settlement,  a  well  nigh  thirty  years'  contest  be- 
tween two  nearly  balanced  parties,  it  was  over  a  funda- 
mental question — a  question  involving  their  whole  church 
polity — whether  the  government  of  the  church  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  ministers  or  of  the  brethren.     Throughout 


OF   THE    SETTLEMEVr    OP^    NEWBrRY.  49 

the  opposition  caused  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Parker's  lapse 
from  his  original  theory  of  popular  church  government,  the 
parish  never  but  for  a  single  year  attempted  to  reduce  his 
salary.  And  when  the  majority,  who  signed  themselves  his 
"loving  but  afflicted  brethren,"  deemed  it  their  duty  to 
suspend  him  from  the  ministry,  they  closed  their  commun- 
ication by  assuring  him  that  "as  a  gifted  brother  you  may 
preach  for  the  edification  of  the  church  if  you  please." 
And  so  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  they  listened  to  his 
preaching,  paid  his  salary,  and  honored  his  name  as  long 
as  Parker  river  shall  flow  to  the  sea.  Such  honoi-able 
traits  and  facts  are  never  to  be  forgotten. 

'Nov  should  it  be  forgotten  how  the  sterling  character 
of  the  early  stock  not  only  in  due  time  bore  fruit  after  its 
kind,  but  by  an  elective  affinity  drew  around  it  elements 
to  form  a  highly  choice  community.  Perhaps  no  town  of 
equal  size  in  the  country  has  fuinished  a  stock  more  pro- 
lific in  families  and  men  of  mark.  I  will  not  attempt  to 
recount  their  names;  for  nn}'^  attempt  to  enumerate  would 
leave  the  tale  half  told.  Many  of  these  names  are  house- 
hold words. 

Such  were  the  forces  which  began  their  woi-k  two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  quietly  and  steadily  held  on  their  way, 
and  have  achieved  their  admirable  results.  How  they 
wrought  on  year  after  year  and  gradually  spread  them- 
selves over  new  territory,  till  the  chief  seat  of  population 
was  transferred  from  the  Parker  river  to  the  Merrimack, 
must  be  sought  in  the  histories  of  Newbury  and  ISTew- 
buryport.  Often  under  heavy  burdens.  Yea,  through 
what  scenes  have  they  passed.  '  Strange  and  fi'ightful 
was  the  series  of  earthquakes  that  began  during  the  town 


50  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

meeting  in  1638,  and  continued  with  brief  intervals  for  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  with  near  two  hundred  recorded 
shocks.*  At  three  different  times  did  the  vast  and  in- 
vincible army  of  caterpillars  become  a  pest  and  glean  the 
forests  for  miles  around.  The  tornado  repeatedly  swept 
over  the  town,  once  even  lifting  the  meeting-house  with 
the  people  within.  Once  only  did  the  savages  burst  into 
the  settlement.  The  terrors  of  the  small-pox  at  times 
amounted  to  a  panic,  when  the  hospital  was  built  in  a 
pasture,  with  a  double  guard  around  it  to  shut  out  and 
shut  in,  and  smoke-houses  were  erected  at  Oldtown  and 
Thorla's  bridges,  to  fumigate  all  travellers  and  goods. 

Still  more  awful  was  the  fright,  near  a  century  ago,  when 
the  yellow  fevei*  came,  and  stayed  from  June  till  October. 
Travellers  shunned  the  place.  Residents  fled  or  im- 
prisoned themselves  at  home.  Streets  were  barred  off. 
Business  was  suspended,  and  pleasures  arrested.  Funeral 
rites  were  omitted.  The  dead  were  carried  at  night  in 
rude  coffins  and  a  ruder  hearse  to  the  cemetei-y;  and  the 
living  shunned  the  very  grave.  But  with  five  and  fifty 
victims  the  pestilence  was  arrested  by  the  merciful  frost. 
Even    more    appalling    were   the   earlier  ravages  of  the 


♦Sometimes  to  the  last  degree  appalling.  Thus  in  1727  the  noise  was  like 
"thunder"  with  a  roar  as  of  "  ten  thousand  coaches  on  a  pavement,"  and  cannon- 
like explosions  following  each  other,  burst  upon  burst,  by  the  half-hour  together. 
Houses  rocked,  chimneys  fell,  stone  walls  were  thrown  down,  a  new  spring  burst 
forth,  and  the  earth  heaved  up  great,  heaps  of  sand.  Families  rushed  by  night 
from  their  shaking  houses  out  upon  the  trembling  earth,  in  momentary  fear  of  be- 
ing swallowed  up  alive.  And  when  we  remember  that  the  worst  visitation  in  the 
same  year  (1727)  in  which  60,000  persons  perished  thus  in  Lisbon,  and  that  the 
second  recorded  shock  was  in  the  year  (1638)  when  the  city  of  Euphebia  in  Cala- 
bria disappeared  forever,  we  can  understand  why  our  fathers  should  have  been 
"desirous  of  leaving  it  on  record  to  the  view  of  after  ages,  that  all  might  take 
notice  of  Almighty  God,  and  fear  his  name." 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    XEWBURY.  51 

throat  distemper,  when  family  after  family  was  bereft  of 
every  child,  and  from  a  single  street  of  the  town  eighty 
persons  were  laid  in  the  grave.  Then  indeed  "was  there 
a  voice  heard,  lamentation,  weeping  and  great  mourning, 
Rachel  weeping  for  her  children  and  would  not  be  com- 
forted." 

Yet  the  current  of  life,  progress  and  prosperity  flowed 
on.  l^o  doubt  the  business  of  the  place  has  encountered 
a  chief  permanent  obstacle  in  the  bar  that  closed  its  har- 
bor; while  in  the  race  of  competition  it  has  also  received 
direct  and  heavy  blows.  The  English,  Fi-ench  and  Danish 
spoliations  of  oui-  commerce,  grave  as  they  were,  did  not 
prevent  the  growth  of  Ncwburyport  in  wealth,  popula- 
tion, and  the  accumulation  of  large  fortunes.  But  the 
embargo  and  the  non-intercourse  Acts,  and  the  war  that 
followed,  were  unmitigated  disasters.  "During  that 
calamitous  period,"  says  Mr.  Gushing.  "  our  seamen  were 
thrown  out  of  emplo3'ment;  our  traders  lost  their  cus- 
tomers; the  farmers  left  our  markets;  and  our  merchants 
were  compelled  to  sit  down  idly  and  see  theii'  ships  rot- 
ting at  their  docks."  In  the  very  midst  of  this  depres- 
sion, when  misfortune  was  borne  in  on  every  breeze  that 
swept  the  ocean,  burst  forth  the  great  calamity  on  land, 
the  famous  fire  of  1811,  the  gieatest  conflagration  of  the 
country  till  that  time,  and  in  its  proportions  quite  as  dis- 
astrous as  any  since.  Its  fearful  brightness  and  its  re- 
sistless power  have  been  too  often  described  to  be  repeated 
now.  They  hover  over  the  place  as  one  of  the  weird 
traditions  of  the  past.  The  light  of  the  flames  was  seen 
sixty  miles  away,  and  when  they  died  dow^n  there  was  a 
long  and  lurid  darkness  over  the  place.     In   three   years 


52  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

the  ratable  property  of  ^ewburyport  fell  from  seven  mil- 
lions to  four,  and  in  nine  years  more  to  two  millions  and 
a  half.  Capital  and  enterprise  never  fully  rallied 
from  these  combined  and  culminating  shocks.  Thence- 
forth they  carried  weight.  Meanwhile  began  the  slow  and 
fate-like  changes  in  the  great  currents  of  business,  the 
growing  centralizations,  intensified  a  hundred  fold  by  the 
power  of  steam,  whereby  the  rural  districts  suri-ender  to 
the  village,  the  village  to  the  town,  the  town  to  the  cities, 
and  the  cities  to  the  great  metropolis.  And  so  our  an- 
cient township  has  halted  in  the  race.  But  she  still  lives 
on  honorably  in  the  present  and  gloriously  in  the  past. 
She  sits  like  some  peaceful  mother  in  the  serenity  of  ad- 
vancing years,  rejoicing  in  the  work  of  her  hands  amid 
the  well  earned  honors  that  adorn  her  life,  and  living  anew 
in  the  fame  of  her  sons. 

The  annals  of  I^ewbury  form  a  luminous  chapter  in  the 
history  of  ^N'ew  England.  'No  man  can  turn  his  eye 
thoughtfully  over  the  history  of  these  years  now  num- 
bered with  the  past,  but  he  shall  say,  it  is  a  noble,  if  not 
a  brilliant  record,  and  that  in  almost  every  line  of  mark. 

One  of  the  foremost  characteristics  has  been  business 
energy  and  skill.  The  town  seemed  to  spring  into  being, 
as  it  were,  in  full  symmetry.  The  day  of  crudeness  and 
tentative  experiments  is  unrecorded.  All  is  precision  and 
grasp.  A  band  of  clear-headed  men — men  of  substance 
and  pliant  foice — are  found  to  have  dropped  down  on  the 
primitive  wilderness,  and  the  wilderness  hns  begun  to 
blossom.  In  the  first  decade  all  the  functions  of  a  thrifty 
village  life  are  working  on  well  nigh  as  smoothly  and 
roundly  for  the  time  as  they  are  today.    Without  peculiar 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  53 

local  advantages  the  town  rose  rapidly,  by  the  sheer  force 
of  home  enterprise,  to  wealth  and  prominence,  and  long 
maintained  clearly  the  second  or  third  place  in  Massachu- 
setts. I  need  not  mention  her  fisheries,  her  trade  coast- 
wise and  oceanic,  her  distilleries  before  the  days  of  tem- 
perance, and  above  all  her  ship-building,  with  the  various 
subsidiary  handicrafts,  the  sources  of  abounding  pros- 
perity. Theie  have  been  times  when  on  this  side  of  the 
Merrimack  a  hundred  vessels  were  seen  building  at  once. 
During  the  first  century  of  the  nation's  independence, 
this  vicinity,  of  which  ^Newbrny  is  the  central  and  chief 
contributor,  sent  out  upon  the  ocean  the  vast  fleet  of  two 
thousand  ships  of  every  size  and  description — armed  ves- 
sels and  merchantmen,  privateers,  clippers  and  steamers, 
from  thirty  to  three  thousand  tons  burden,  to  range  the 
ocean  from  the  West  Indies  to  the  East.  Nor  has  the 
glory  yet  departed.  Meanwhile  the  forceful  activity  of 
the  early  settlers  found  its  way  into  the  various  foims  and 
iippliances  of  enterprise.  It  was  ever  at  the  front.  Some 
of  these  industries  have  passed  away  with  the  occasion 
and  opportunity.  The  old  township  claims  the  first 
woolen  mill  in  Massachusetts  and  the  first  bi'oad  cloth 
made  in  America,  the  first  nail  factoiy  in  the  world,  the 
first  chain  bridge  in  the  United  States,  the  first  and  second 
daily  paper  in  the  county,  the  first  arithmetic  composed, 
the  first  music  book  and  the  first  incorporated  academy  in 
America,  the  first  Sunday  school  and  the  fiist  Female 
High  school  in  Massachusetts,  the  first  destruction  of  tea 
before    the    Revolution,    and    after   it   the  first  unfold- 


54  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

ing  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes  on  the  river  Thames.* 
In  these  latter  days  the  name  of  Jacob  Perkins  stands 
for  the  highest  inventive  genius,  that  of  Panl  Moody  for 
the  best  mechanical  skill;  the  name  of  John  Cabot  Low- 
ell is  identified  with  all  that  is  excellent  in  the  cotton- 
factory  system  of  IS'ew  England,  and  that  of  William 
Wheelwright  with  the  Steam  Navigation  Company  and 
the  railway  system  of  South  America,  and  all  their  far- 
reaching  influences. 

^N^or  has  this  enterprise  and  wealth  been  wanting  in 
beneficence  and  public  spirit.  All  forms  of  suffering  and 
want  have  found  a  ready  response.  Besides  the  some- 
what exceptional  care  for  the  poor  which  has  character- 
ized this  settlement  from  early  times,  such  special  institu- 
tions as  the  Merrimack  Humane,  the  Marine,  the  Howard 
Benevolent,  and  the  General  Benevolent  societies,  and  a 
multitude  of  minor  organizations — some  of  which  have 
passed  away  with  the  occasion,  and  some  are  working 
on — have  expressed  the  heart  of  the  community.  There 
was  a  time,  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 
(1728)  when  the  several  churches  had  their  select  com- 
mittees with  monthly  meetings,  "  to  consider  what  may  be 
for  the  good  of  the  town  in  general."  l^o  call,  at  home 
or  abroad,  has  come  amiss.  Is  Governor  Winthrop  em- 
barrassed with  heavy  losses  by  his  fraudulent  bailiff"? 
Richard  Dummer  sends  a  hundred  pounds  for  his  relief. 
Does  the  young  college  at  Cambridge  need  a  new  brick 
building?     Kewbury  sends  thirty  pounds — her  third  do- 


*The  writer  has  not  personally  verified  these  claims,  but  given  them  on  the  au- 
thority of  others. 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT   OF    NEWBURY.  55 

nation.     Does  the  small-pox  in  Boston  carry  off  a  hundred 
victims  in  a  season?     Old  ]N^ewbury  sends  her  contribu- 
tions for  the  Boston  poor.     Does  the  cry  of  distress  come 
from  famine-stricken  Ireland?     T wen ty-iive  hundred  dol- 
lars was  the  ready  response  from  Kewburyport.     Suffer- 
ers by  lire  have  always  found  a  peculiarly  prompt  and 
tender   sympathy.      Petersburg,   AViscasset,  Gloucester, 
Fayetteville,    Charleston,  Fall    River,  Nantucket,  Port- 
land, Chicago,  Boston,  shall  bear  witness.     There  were 
collections  for  the  sufferers  by  storm  at  Rockport,  and  by 
the  drought  at  the  Cape  Verde   Islands.     There  was  a 
society  to  promote  the  religious  welfare  of  the  Isles  of 
Shoals,  and  after  the  Greek  Revolution  a  Richmond  Cir- 
cle to  support  schools  in  Greece,  yes,  in  Athens  itself. 
Liberal  gifts  to  the  public  retrieve  the  memory  of  Timo- 
thy Dexter.     Brown  and  Putnam  remembered  the  public 
schools.     The  Public  Library  and  the  statue  of  Wash- 
ington are  monuments  of  generous  donors.      A  hundred 
and  twenty  years  ago  William  Dummer  founded  his  well- 
known  academy,  a  nursery  of  famous  men.     Three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  ago  Moses  Brown  gave  $36,000  to  An- 
dover  Seminary,   and  William  Bartlet  began  toward  the 
same   institution   the   princely  munificence  of  $200,000, 
then  well-nigh  unparalleled  in  the  land. 

This  ancient  township  has  been  a  favorite  abode  of  ed- 
ucation and  culture.  Perhaps  in  this  sphere  no  part  even 
of  Massachusetts  has  shown  a  more  permanent  and  con- 
sistent zeal.  In  1639  lands  were  appropriated  for  the  use 
of  the  schoolmaster,  and  the  annual  provision  for  his  sup- 
port seems  to  have  been  as  regular  as  the  town  meeting. 
A  chief  argument  for  the  separate  incorporation  of  New- 


56  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

buryport  (in  1764)  was  the  need  of  better  school  accom- 
modations for  that  part  of  the  old  township ;  and  at  the 
first  town  meeting  after  that  incorporation,  measures  were 
adopted  for  the  great  expansion  and  "honorable  support" 
of  the  public  schools.  Thirty  years  later  I^ewburyport 
could  boast  of  two  more  public  schools  than  Boston.* 
Here  was  tried  more  than  sixt}'  years  ago,  and  success- 
fully too,  the  experiment  of  Lancasterian  schools.  Here 
at  the  same  time  was  an  African  school,  before  the  colored 
children  had,  as  now,  all  the  educational  privileges  of  the 
place.  No  town  has  been  earlier  or  more  honorably  dis- 
tinguished by  special  provisions  for  the  education  of  its 
daughters;  and  nobly  have  its  daughters  responded  to 
their  opportunities.  Some  of  them,  like  Hannah  Gould, 
Lucy  Hooper,  Hannah  Lee,  have  spoken  to  the  ear  and 
heart  of  the  great  public;  some,  like  Jane  Greenleaf  and 
Mary  Crocker,  have  shone  in  beneficent  and  missionary 
work;  and  a  great  and  goodly  company  of  them  have 
lived,  and  still  live,  to  grace  the  scenes  and  fill  the  joys  of 
social  life. 

The  highest  education  has  found  here   a   liberal  and 
constant  patronage.     Benjamin  Woodbridge  was  of  the 


*Tliis  statement,  which  has  been  criticised  by  a  writer  in  the  Boston  Transcript 
of  June  15,  1885,  is  simply  and  literally  a  quotation  from  the  Essex  Jmirnal  of 
1793,  as  cited  in  Mrs.  Smith's  History  of  Newburyport,  p.  149.  The  Jminuil  af- 
firms that  there  were  then  "nine  public  schools"  containing  "about  nine  Inmdred 
children  now  educating  at  the  public  expense.  Notwithstanding  the  sniallness  of 
this  town,  when  compared  witli  Boston,  tliere  are  two  more  piibVe  schools  here  than 
m  that  place:''  The  Transcript  writer  confirms  this  statement  by  saying  that  in 
Boston  in  1794  there  were  "seven  public  schools,  so  described"  and  "tlie  number 
of  pupils  was  nearly  900,"  that  is,  two  public  schools  less  than  those  of  Newbury- 
port, and  about  the  same  number  of  pupils  in  them.  As  to  the  grade  or  charac- 
ter of  the  schools,  the  speaker  made  no  comparison.  The  italics  are  found  in  the 
citation  by  Mrs.  Smith. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  57 

first  class,  and  probably  was  the  first  man  to  receive  a  de- 
gree at  Harvard  college.  From  that  time  to  this,  New- 
bury graduates  from  N^ew  England  colleges  are  counted 
by  hundreds.  It  is  a  list  of  men  useful  and  honored,  and 
many  of  them  eminent,  in  the  public  walks  of  life.  More 
than  a  hundred  have  been  ministers  of  the  gospel,  among 
them  men  of  renown,  both  living  and  dead.  We  have 
given  to  Bowdoin  and  to  Hobart  colleges  each  an  accom- 
plished president.  Woods  and  Hale,  and  to  Harvard  two, 
Webber  and  Felton,  besides  such  eminent  professors  as 
Peai'son  and  Koyes.  In  the  legal  profession  what 
brighter  lights,  in  their  several  spheres,  has  IS^ew  England 
seen,  than  Theophilus  Parsons,  Caleb  Cashing,  and  Simon 
Greenleaf?  Who  can  call  the  roll  of  the  distinguished 
teachers,  the  able  editors,  the  skillful  physicians,  of  whom 
it  can  be  said,  "this  man  was  born  here."  Hither  came 
Isaiah  Thomas,  three  years  before  the  Revolution,  to  pub- 
lish the  Essex  Journal  and  Merrimack  Packet.  In  the 
early  part  of  the  present  century  ]N^ewburyport  was  pe- 
culiarly a  bookish  town.  Eight  journals  established  in 
as  many  years,  half  a  dozen  "social"  libraries  in  opera- 
tion at  the  same  time,  and  somewhat  later  a  public  de- 
bating society,  a  Linnean  Society,  Mozart  Society,  Horti- 
cultural Society,  and  Lyceum,  and  a  lively  book  trade  of 
high  order,  all  indicate  the  intellect,  refinement  and  cul- 
ture that  tinged  the  bright  social  life  of  the  town,  and  in- 
vested it  with  attractions  for  scholarly  men,  second  only 
to  those  of  'New  England's  metropolis. 

Patriotism  also  has  found  a  chosen  home  in  this  ancient 
town.  In  every  military  movement,  from  the  first  Indian 
war  to  the  last  battles  of  the  rebellion,  she  has  borne  hei' 


^^  ^>     *TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

part.  Less  than  two  years  from  the  first  settlement  eight 
citizens  marched  under  Stoughton  to  suppi-ess  the  mur- 
derous Pequots  in  Connecticut.  Sixty-seven  soldiers 
went  to  the  war  against  King  Philip,  and  in  the  decisive 
fight  at  ^arraganset  they  furnished  one-third  of  the 
wounded  and  slain.  The  men  of  ^ewburyport  hastened 
to  share  in  the  overthrow  of  Andros;  and  one  of  them 
arrived  in  season,  his  dangling  sword,  as  you  well  know, 
leaving  "a  stream  of  fire  all  the  way  from  here  to  Boston" 
—and,  we  may  add,  from  that  day  to  this.  In  the  next 
year  soldiers  were  sent  for  the  defence  of  Amesbury  and 
Salisbury;  and  sixteen  volunteers  took  part  in  the  unfor- 
tunate expedition  of  Phipps  against  Quebec.  In  the 
French  and  Indian  war  our  Captain  John  March  received 
fifty  pounds  from  the  General  Court  for  his  "brave  de- 
fence" and  his  wounds  at  Casco  fort.  A  large  number 
of  our  ti-oops  bore  a  part  in  the  reduction  of  Louisburg, 
and  again  in  the  expedition  to  Crown  Point,  and  in  the 
battle  of  Lake  George,  where  our  gallant  Colonel  Tit- 
comb  fell.  Oiu'  troops  shared  in  the  taking  of  Louisburg 
and  the  captui-e  of  forts  Frontenac  and  Du  Quesne.  The 
town  was  ripe  for  the  Revolution  long  before  it  came.  In 
1754  it  voted  the  excise  bill  to  be  "an  infringement  of  the 
natural  rights  of  Englishmen."  In  17G8  the  young  la- 
dies were  drinking  their  "liberty  tea"  made  of  rib- wort; 
and  about  this  time  Newbury  and  Newburyport  were  de- 
nouncing the  stamp  act,  joining  the  non-importation 
agreement,  thanking  Boston  for  its  "vigilance  and 
patriotic  zeal,"  and  in  '73  pledging  assistance  "at  the 
risque  of  our  lives  and  fortunes."  When  the  midnight 
news  came  from  the  fight  at  Lexington,  four  companies 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NE^VBURY. 


from  N^ewbury  and  ]^ewburyport  hurried  to  the  field  of 
action.  During  the  investment  of  Boston  these  towns 
sent  six  hundred  pounds  to  that  suffering  city.  At 
Bunker  Hill  the  company  of  Captain  Perkins  fought  to 
the  last  by  the  "  rail  fence,"  where  the  bullets  were  "thick 
as  peas,"  and  the  company  of  Captain  Lunt  gallantly 
covered  the  retreat.  Our  soldiers  joined  Arnold's  expe- 
dition to  Quebec  in  the  days  of  his  glory,  and  on  the 
night  of  his  treachery  our  John  Brown  and  Samuel  Pills- 
bury  were  in  vain  tempted  by  the  traitor  to  follow  him  to 
the  deck  of  the  Vulture.  Our  troops  were  at  Long 
Island  and  White  Plains,  and  at  the  suirender  of  Bur- 
goyne.  This  port  was  very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  first  as 
well  as  foremost  in  the  privateering  of  the  war.  The 
cruisers  of  Nathaniel  Tracy  alone  captured  one  hundred 
vessels  and  2200  prisoners.  But  what  havoc  was  wrought 
in  these  homes.  "  Seventy-two  vessels,  with  crews  num- 
bering more  than  a  thousand  men,  sailed  from  Newbury- 
port  and  were  never  heard  of  again."  To  the  war  of  1812 
Newbury  shared  the  genei-al  opposition  of  New  England, 
and  from  it  she  sustained,  as  she  feai-ed,  irreparable  loss. 
In  the  war  of  the  rebellion  our  troops  responded  to  the 
first  call,  and  throughout  the  struggle  Newburyport  ex- 
ceeded her  quota  both  in  money  and  in  men. 

But  the  crowning  trait  of  this  ancient  township  has 
been  her  religion.  Around  this,  it  may  be  truly  said,  all 
else  has  centred.  A  church  was  her  earliest  institution, 
and  churches  have  been  her  mnturest  fruits,  as  a  dozen 
bells  emphatically  told  us  at  sunrise  this  morning.  Upon 
the  workings  of  the  first  church  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury was  concentrated  the  interest,  not  only  of  the  town, 


60  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

but  of  the  colony;  and  the  affairs  of  the  several  churches 
have  absorbed  to  a  remarkable  degree  the  attention  of 
this  community  through  its  whole  history.  The  discus- 
sions and,  if  you  please,  the  controversies  they  have 
aroused,  show  the  tenacity  with  which  the  men  held  the 
religion,  and  the  religion  held  the  men.  Some  of  their 
scruples  have  long  lost  significance.  But  most  of  them 
were  matters  of  import.  ISTor  can  it  be  for  a  moment 
doubted  that  religion  was  the  primal  source  of  their  life 
and  power.  But  for  their  religion  they  would  not  have 
been  here,  nor  would  they  have  been  what  they  were. 
The  settlement  of  the  town  and  of  its  parts,  was  gauged 
by  the  locatioii  of  the  meeting  house,  and  its  social  life 
has  been  largely  tinged  by  its  parochial  life.  The  very 
soldiers  on  their  way  to  fight  the  Pequots  halted  to  settle 
the  question  whether  they  were  under  a  covenant  of  grace 
or  of  works.  And  the  catechism  left  by  Pastor  Xoyes 
shows  also  that  the  original  type  of  that  religion  was  the 
type  of  which  Fioude  the  historian  speaks  thus:  "When 
all  else  has  failed — when  patriotism  has  covered  its  face, 
and  human  courage  has  broken  down — when  intellect  has 
yielded,  as  Gibbon  says,  with  a  smile  or  a  sigh,  content  to 
philosophize  in  the  closet  and  abroad  worship  with  the 
vulgar — when  emotion  and  sentiment,  and  tender  imagin- 
ative piety  have  become  handmaids  of  superstition,  and 
dreamt  themselves  into  forgetfulness  that  there  is  any 
difference  between  lies  and  truth — the  slavish  form  of  be- 
lief called  Calvinism,  in  one  or  other  of  its  many  forms, 
has  ever  borne  an  inflexible  front  to  illusion  and  men- 
dacity, and  has  pi-efened  I'ather  to  be  ground  to  powder 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  61 

like  flint  than  to  bend  before  violence  or  melt  under  ener- 
vating temptation." 

It  has  been  a  religion  full  of  beneficence,  as  we  have 
seen,  and  of  good  morals.  And  singularly  enough,  this 
old  conservative  place  was  one  of  the  earliest  homes  of 
the  anti-slavery  agitation.  Three  years  before  our  Inde- 
pendence the  slave  Caesar  Hendrick  sued  Simon  Green- 
leaf  for  detaining  him  in  slavery,  and  recovered  eighteen 
pounds  damages,  and  costs.  In  the  following  year  the 
North  church  resounded  with  two  stirring  anti-slavery 
sermons  from  Nathaniel  Niles;  and  deacon  Coleman  of 
Newbury  began  in  the  Essex  Journal  his  long  and  vigor- 
ous series  of  protests  against  slavery.  In  later  days  hei'e 
was  the  birth-place  of  the  great  agitator,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  who  also  found  one-fourth  of  the  first  members 
of  the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  Newbury 
and  Newburyport.  And  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  in 
the  same  season  in  which  a  public  meeting  was  held  here 
to  express  resistance  to  the  Nullifiers  of  the  South,  his 
fellow-citizens  refused  a  hearing  to  one  whom  they  re- 
garded as  the  great  Nullifier  of  the  North. 

The  clergy  have  commonly  been  foremost  in  counsel, 
ill  action,  and  in  honor.  Rev.  Paul  Moody  went  as  chap- 
lain in  the  expedition  to  Louisburg,  and  Samuel  Spring 
to  Quebec.  John  Lowell  preached  to  Col.  Titcomb  and 
his  soldiers  before  they  set  out  for  Crown  Point.  Parson 
Toj)pan  at  midnight,  fiom  a  cart,  exhorted  the  recruits 
for  Lexington.  Rev.  Jonathan  Parsons,  after  a  sermon, 
called  out  in  the  broad  aisle  volunteers  for  Boston  and 
Bunker  Hill.  And  the  honors  which  this  entire  commun- 
ity paid  to  the  Reverend  Dr.  Dana  on  his  semi-centennial 


62  TWO   HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

illustrated  alike  their  respect  for  the  man  and  the  minis- 
try. And  well  has  the  ministry  of  Newbury  and  IS^ew- 
buryport  earned  respect  and  honor.  The  names  of  Top- 
pan,  Parish,  Woods,  Spring,  Bass,  Proudfit,  Dana,  Dim- 
mick,  Withington,  and  others,  living  and  dead,  are  names 
of  renown.  Here  labored  at  various  times,  with  extra- 
ordinary power,  that  prince  of  English  preachers,  George 
Whitefield;  here  he  died  and  here  he  lies  buried.  In  the 
teeming  brains  of  a  ]!^ewburyport  and  a  Salem  minister,  as 
they  rode  together  in  a  chaise  to  Bradford,  sprang  up  the 
grand  scheme  of  the  American  Board  of  Missions;  and 
from  this  port,  in  1815,  sailed  the  band  of  missionaries — 
ordained  in  the  old  Titcomb  street  church — that  first  car- 
ried the  gospel  to  Ceylon.  Of  the  thousands  of  vessels 
that  have  sailed  hence  over  the  wide  ocean,  none  have 
borne  more  precious  freight  than  when  the  brig  Dryad 
carried  Meigs,  Bardwell,  Warren,  Richards,  and  Poor  to 
their  noble  work. 

Such  are  some  of  the  facts  and  traits  that  have  marked 
the  history  of  this  community.  It  is  not  easy,  in  this,  its 
time  of  comparative  restfulness,  to  imagine  all  the  stir  of 
the  long  past — what  activities  and  festivities,  what  enter- 
prise and  bustle,  what  pomps  and  parade,  what  style  and 
equipage,  what  brightness  and  fashion,  what  glitter 
and  profusion  have  here  had  theij*  home.  In  the 
times  when  its  merchantmen  were  pouring  in  all 
the  luxuries  of  Euiope,  these  capacious  old  mansions  were 
filled  with  a  famous  and  abounding  hospitality,  and  a 
cultured  social  life.  Its  festive  assemblies  were  gorgeous 
in  gay  aj)parel,  winning  in  courtesy,  elegant  in  equipage. 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBUKT.  63 

graceful  in  refinement,  and  stately  in  ceremonial.  There 
was  a  time  when  a  bride  was  drawn  to  her  home  by  six 
white  horses,  with  outriders,  footmen  and  coachman  in 
new  liveries;  when  a  young  minister  and  his  new-married 
wife  were  met  and  escorted  by  a  procession  of  thirty 
chaises  to  meet  a  jovial  assembly  at  the  parsonage.  The 
Hooper  and  Dalton  estates  were  "the  pride  of  Essex 
county;"  and  in  1780  to  Prince  Talleyrand  and  the 
French  noblemen  who  accompanied  him,  the  hospitality  of 
John  Tracy  "  breathed  an  air  of  magnificence."  There 
have  been  public  events  that  drew  the  eye  and  stirred  the 
blood  of  the  nation.  From  this  port  sailed  Arnold  with 
his  fleet  of  eleven  transport  vessels,  accompanied  by 
Aai'on  Burr,  and  by  Generals  Morgan  and  Dearborn  of 
Revolutionary  fame,  on  the  unfortunate  expedition  to 
Quebec.  Into  this  port,  four  months  later,  were  brought 
two  British  prize  vessels  in  one  day,  six  months  before 
the  Declaration  of  our  Independence.  Over  Parker  river 
bridge  came  General  Washington  escorted  by  cavalry, 
infantry  and  artillery,  and  followed  by  an  immense  pro- 
cession, to  be  addressed  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  and 
moved  to  tears  by  the  Ode  of  Welcome.  And  here,  too, 
his  death  was  as  publicly  recognized,  and  Washington 
street  laid  out  to  hand  down  his  name  forever.  Over  the 
same  bridge  came  President  Monroe  to  be  met  by  a  regi- 
ment of  cavalry  and  a  great  cavalcade  of  citizens,  to  be 
heralded  by  the  roar  of  cannon  and  the  ringing  of  bells, 
to  pass  through  an  avenue  of  youth  arrayed  in  white  and 
blue,  and  a  throng  of  enthusiastic  people,  and  to  be  en- 
tertained at  a  sumptuous  banquet  where  all  party  distinc- 
tions disappeared.     Hither  also  came  La  Fayette,  the  na- 


64  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

tion's  guest,  welcomed  by  a  vast  crowd,  whose  ardor  even 
the  pouring  rain  could  not  dampen,  to  meet  new  friends 
and  old  companions  in  arms,  and  to  sleep  in  the  chamber 
and  the  couch  of  Washington. 

Not  the  least  of  the  gala  days  was  the  bi-centennial 
celebration,  fifty  years  ago.  It  was  a  memorable  day 
when  that  goodly  company  sat  till  the  setting  sun,  en- 
chained by  the  voices  of  Edward  Everett,  Stephen  H. 
Phillips,  Caleb  Cushing,  George  Lunt,  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp,  and  Samuel  L.  Knapp,  and  their  blood  bounded  to 
the  rolling  chorus. 

Pilgrims  and  wanderers, 

Hither  we  come ; 
Where  the  free  dare  to  be, 

This  is  our  home," 

and  the  brightness  of  the  evening,  graced  by  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  these  ancient  homes,  well  nigh  eclipsed 
the  glories  of  the  day.  Indeed  it  has  been  a  part  of  the 
abounding  life  of  the  place  to  share  in  the  excitements  of 
the  times — as  formerly  in  the  roystering  commemorations 
of  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  the  fierce  onslaught  upon  the 
stamp  distributors,  the  strong  indignation  at  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  commerce,  or  the  vehement  rejoicings  over  the 
down-fall  of  Napoleon.  Every  vibration  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  public  affairs  has  found  here  the  mind  to  see,  the 
nerve  to  feel,  and  the  soul  to  respond. 

Reminiscences  like  these,  full  as  they  are  of  pride  and 
pleasure,  often  have  their  plaintive  strain.  They  tell  us 
of  change.  They  are  the  echoes  of  a  vanished  voice,  the 
lengthened  shadows  of  a  receding  light.     Commemora- 


OF    THK    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  (>,') 

tions,  even,  are  wistful  gazings  into  the  past.     We  are  re- 
minded today  that  the  voices  which  here   were   eloquent 
half  a  century  ago,  are  mostly  silent,  and  the   hands  and 
hearts  most   active   then  are  restful   now.     We   are   re- 
minded that  the  relative  prominence  of  this  ancient  town- 
ship which  we  eulogize  today,  is  to  some  extent  that  which 
has  been      But  this  is  only  the  common  lot,  the  inevitable 
fate.     In  a  world  of  evolution  and  of  revolution  all  things 
have  their  rise,  their  prime,  and  their  decadence.     One 
generation  lights  the  torch  and  hands  it  along.     A  city  or 
a  state  bears  precious  fruit  and  scatters  it  to  the  nations. 
Sometimes — as  not  here — there  is   complete  decadence. 
The  fisherman  now   spreads  his  nets  at  the  wharves  of 
Tyre.      Bats  guard  the  tombs  of  the   Pharaohs.     The 
spade  alone  reveals  the  glories  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon, 
Broken  arches  of  an  aqueduct  mark  the  site  of  Carthage. 
Rome  ti'ades  in  the  memories  of  her  former  glory.     For 
aught  we  can  tell,  the  Zulu  may  yet  sit  on  a  broken  arch 
of  London  bridge,  and  sketch  the  rnins  of   St.  Paul's. 
But  even  when  it  is  so,  there  hovers  over  the  ancient  seats 
of  life  and  power  a  halo  as  deathless  as  human  thought 
and  feeling.     The  pilgrim  from   distant  lands   wends  his 
way  thithei-  and  peoples   the   spot  with  its  pristine  Kfe. 
Though  "the  sun  sets  at  night"  yet  "glory  remains  when 
the  light  fades  away."     With  the  setting  sun  a  zodiacal 
glow  streams  upward  to  the  zenith,  and  even  through  the 
long  winter's  night  electric  fires  flash  and  flicker  over  the 
surface  of  the  heavens. 

But  here  is  no  sunset.  It  is  the  quiet  aflei*noon  of  a 
luminous  day.  Wealth  and  comfort  still  cling  to  the 
place.     Business  enlivens  the  streets.     Many  a  sail  from 


66  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

the  Merrimack  whitens  the  ocean.  These  schools  send 
forth  their  perennial  stream  of  youthful  intelligence. 
This  Public  Library  radiates  increasing  light.  Vigorous 
manhood  still  grapples  with  all  the  problems  of  life,  and 
feminine  culture  enlivens  these  homes.  The  stock  that 
has  furnished  the  commonwealth  with  so  many  men  of 
mark,  is  still  represented  here,  and  the  soil  itself  has  not 
all  passed  away  from  the  early  families.  The  scattered 
sons  of  old  Newbury  are  proud  to  trace  back  their  line- 
age through  seven  generations  to  the  banks  of  the  Q  uas- 
cacunquen,  and  in  their  distant  wanderings  they  have 
heard  today  the  mother's  call  and  hasten  to  the  old  home- 
stead to  keep  jubilee  together.  We  have  come  to  rejoice 
in  her  serene  and  healthful  joys,  to  oflPer  our  filial  saluta- 
tions, and  to  witness  for  ourselves  how 


"well  she  keeps  her  ancient  stock, 
The  stubborn  strength  ' '  like  "  Plymouth  Rock, 
And  still  maintains  with  milder  laws 
And  clearer  light  the  Good  Old  Cause, 
Nor  heeds  the  skeptic's  puny  hands 
While  near  her  school  the  church-spire  stands. 
Nor  fears  the  blinded  bigot's  rule 
While  near  her  church-spire  stands  the  school." 


We  have  come,  summoned  by  no  spectral  drummer  to 
some  "Midnight  Review"  of  the  actors  in  scenes  of  de- 
vastation and  carnage,  but  in  the  light  of  noon-day, 
drawn  by  filial  instinct,  to  honor  an  ancestry  eminent  in 
civic  virtues  and  moral  worth.  We  have  not  marched 
hither  with  grand  procession  and  martial  music,  but  we 
have  quietly  gathered,  as  did  they,  with  prayer  and  psalm 
and  word  of  God.     As  we  crossed  Parker  river,  not  far 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF   NEWBURY.  67 

from  where  Washington  and  La  Fayette  entered  the  place, 
we  might  well  have  said  to  the  stranger  on  the  train, 

"Invisible  to  thee 
Spirits  twain  have  crossed  with  me." 

As  we  have  trod  these  streets,  venerated  forms  from 
the  distant  past  came  walking  by  our  side.  These  an- 
cient churches  are  draped  with  sacred  memories,  and 
these  modest  mansions  wreathed  with  hallowed  associa- 
tions. Could  the  roll-call  of  the  past  summon  forth  to 
the  eye  the  men  and  women  that  are  present  to  the  mind's 
eye,  jurists  and  divines,  patriots  and  philanthropists, 
scholars  and  inventors,  writers  and  teachers,  distinguished 
civilians  and  strong  men  of  business,  of  enterprise  and  of 
skill,  with  the  wives  and  the  mothers,  the  daughters  and 
the  sisters  that  formed,  cheered,  and  held  them  to  their 
high  endeavor,  what  an  august  assembly  would  spring 
forth  upon  the  sight.  It  is  good  to  be  here  and  to  mingle 
in  such  company.  It  is  well  for  us  on  this  our  festal  day — 
our  quarter-millennial — gathered  from  far  and  near,  from 
all  the  walks  and  callings  of  life,  in  such  an  invisible 
presence  to  take  each  other  by  the  hand  and  pledge 
eternal  fealty  to  the  truth  and  the  right,  and  deathless  de- 
votion to  the  high  law  of  duty  to  God  and  to  man.  So 
shall  the  perpetual  benediction  of  an  honoi-able  ancestry 
pass  down  as  an  heir-loom  to  the  remotest  generation  of 
their  descendants;  and  many  an  absent  son  and  daughter 
of  the  ancient  home  shall  say, 

"My  heart  is  at  your  festival, 
My  head  hath  its  coronal." 


68  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

At  tJie  close  of  President  Bartlett's  address,  which  occupied  one  hour 
and  twenty  minutes,  there  was  an  earnest  eiTort  made  on  the  part  of 
the  audience  to  induce  Lieut.  A.  W.  Greely,  who  was  seated  upon  the 
platform,  to  offer  a  few  remarks.  Responding  to  this  unexpected 
call,  Lieut.  Greely  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — Fully  appreciating  the  kind  reception  that 
you  have  accorded  me  on  this  occasion,  I  think  it  best  to  follow  the 
programme  aiTanged  by  the  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose ;  and 
as  I  have  been  invited  to  speak  at  the  dinner  table  this  afternoon,  I  pre- 
fer not  to  interfere  with  the  regular  order  of  exercises  in  this  hall. 

The  anthem,  "Send  out  Thy  Light,"  by  Gounod,  was  then  sung. 
The  words  are  as  follows: 

Send  out  Thy  light  and  Thy  trutli,  let  them  lead  me, 

And  let  them  bring  me  to  Thy  holy  hill. 

O  God,  then  will  I  go  unto  Thy  altar. 

On  the  harp  we  will  praise  Thee,  O  Lord  our  God ! 

Why,  O  soul,  art  Thou  sorrowful, 
And  why  cast  down  within  me  ? 
Still  trust  the  loving  kindness 
Of  the  God  of  thy  strength, 
And  my  tongue  yet  shall  praise  Him 
Who  hath  pleaded  my  cause ! 

Lord  our  God ! 

Thou  wilt  save  Thine  anointed. 

Thou  wilt  hear  us  from  heaven ; 

Tho'  in  chariots  some  put  their  faith, 

Our  trust  is  in  Thee ! 

They  are  brought  down  and  fallen, 

But  the  Lord  is  our  helper, 

We  shall  not  be  afraid. 

The  benediction  was  then  pronounced  by  Rev.  Dr.  S.  J.  Spalding, 
and  at  half-past  one  o'clock  the  audience  dispersed. 


THE  PROCESSION. 


THE  PROCESSION. 


At  the  close  of  the  exercises  in  City  Hall,  a  procession  was  formed 
on  Brown  square,  and  the  streets  adjacent,  and  at  two  o'clock  took  up 
the  line  of  march  in  the  following  order: 

Detachment  of   Police  under  Command  of  Capt.  Ira  F.  H.  Blake. 

Capt.  Luther  Dame,  Chief  Marshal. 

Major  Edward  F.  Bartlett,  Chief  of  Staff. 

Carter's  Band  of   Boston,— 23  pieces. 

Companies  A  and  B,    Eighth    Regiment,    M.  V.  M.,    in  Battalion  Formation. 

Capt.  Oscar  C.  Lougee  commanding. 

First  Company,  Capt.  J.  Albert  Mills,  20  men. 

Second  Company,  Lieut.  Charles  W.  Adams,  20  men. 

Third  Companj-,  Lieut.  J.  Herman  Carver,  20  men. 

Fourth  Company,  Lieut.  Nehemiah   A.  Robbins,   20  men. 

Antique  Carriage,  drawn  by  one  Horse,  driven  by  Albert  Tilton  dressed  in  the 

costume  of  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

Capt.  David  L.  Withixgton,  Marshal. 

Aids : 

Percy  L.  Dame,  Henry  B.  Little,  George  W.  Huse. 

Historical  Society  of   Old  Newbury,  with  the  banner  displayed  at  the  200ch 

Anniversarj'  of   the  Settlement   of    Newburj-. 
Carriages  containing  the    President    of    tlie    Day.   Orator,   Officiating  Clergy- 
men,  Committee  on  Literary  Exercises,   and 
Invited  Guests. 


72  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

SECOND  DIVISION. 
William  E.  Chase,  Marshal. 

Aids: 
Charles  A.  Bliss,  George  H.  Jaques, 

Joseph  D.  Little,  George  F.  Menzies. 

Browu  High,   Female  High  and  Putnam  Free  Schools,   Newburyport, 

70  scholars. 

Bromfield  Street  Male  Grammar  School,   Newburyport, 

60  scholars. 

Jackman  Male  Grammar  School,   Newburyport, 

60  scholars. 

Forrester  Street  Male  Grammar  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 

Hancock   Street  Female    Grammar  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 
Purchase  Street  Female  Grammar  School,   Newburyport, 

50  scholars. 

Forrester  Street  Female  Grammar  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 

Kelley  Grammar  and  Primary  Schools,   Newburyport, 

185  scholars. 
Bromiield  Street  Male  Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

50  scholars. 
Hancock   Street  Female  Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 

Purchase   Street  Female  Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 

Jackman  Male  Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

50  scholars. 

Temple  Street  Female  Primary  School,  Newburyport, 

15  scholars. 

Davenport  Male  Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 

Davenport  Female  Primary  School,  Newburyport, 

20  scholars. 

Kent  Street  (Mixed)  Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

50  scholars. 

Ashland  Street   (Mixed)   Primary  School,   Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 

Plains  and  Moultonville  (Mixed)  Grammar  and  Primary  Schools,  Newburyport, 

40  scholars. 


OK    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  73 

Barges  containing    Small    Children  from  the  Public  Schools  of   the  City    of 

Newbury  port. 
Lower  Green  School,  Newburj\   37  scholars. 
Upper  Green  School,   Newbury,   30  scholars. 
Ridge  School,   No.   2,  Newbury,   30  scholars. 
William  P.   Bailey's  School,  West  Newbury,   30  scholars. 
Maple    and    Centre  Schools,     West    Newbury,     115    scholars. 
West  Newbury  Grammar  School,   33  scholars. 

The  procession  proceeded  up  Green  street,  through  Washington,  up 
Market,  up  High,  countermarched  to  State,  through  Middle,  up  Fair, 
through  Orange,  up  Federal,  down  High,  to  the  tent  on  March's  Field. 

There  was  no  general  attempt  at  decoration  along  the  route,  though 
many  citizens  displayed  flags  and  bunting  from  their  residences. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  procession  was  the  large 
number  of  children  from  the  public  schools  of  Newbury,  West  New- 
bury and  Newburyport — estimated  at  over  thirteen  hundred  in  all — ^the 
small  children  riding  in  barges  gaily  decorated  for  the  occasion ;  the 
larger  ones  walking  and  bearing  garlands  of  flowers  and  evergreens. 

As  the  procession  passed  through  Orange  street.  Miss  Phebe  Harrod, 
nearly  ninety-nine  years  of  age,  stood  in  the  doorway  of  her  house  and 
viewed  the  display,  receiving  many  bows  and  smiles  of  recognition 
which  she  gracefully  returned. 

Arriving  at  March's  Field  the  members  of  the  Historical  Society 
with  invited  guests,  entered  the  tent  erected  by  Mr.  R.  M.  Yale  of  Bos- 
ton, and  were  conducted  to  seats  reserved  for  them  at  the  dinner  tables. 
The  children  were  escorted  to  another  large  tent  on  the  same  field,  fur- 
nished by  Mr.  Howard  P.  Currier  of  Newburyport,  and  there  partook 
of  a  bountiful  collation  provided  by  friends  interested  in  the  celebra- 
tion. 


10 


THE    DINNER. 


THE  DINNER. 


The  spacious  tent  in  which  the  dinner  was  served  was  erected  on 
March's  Field,  High  street,  opposite  the  head  of  Allen  street,  New- 
buryport.  The  following  gentlemen,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Thomas 
E.  Cutter,  acted  as  ushers : 

Edward  A.  Husk,  Frank  H.  Plumbr,  William  B.  Knapp, 

Herbert  N.  Woodwell,  Herbert  M.  Stevens,  George  P.  Tilton, 

Ernest  E.  Clark,  Edward  G.  Moody,  William  A.  Barron, 

William  S.  Currier.  Robert  H.  Hills,  Harry  W.  Bayley. 

Preparations  had  been  made  to  accommodate  over  one  thousand  per- 
sons, and  when  the  company  had  assembled  and  the  members  of  the 
Historical  Society  with  invited  guests  had  taken  the  seats  assigned 
them,  there  were  but  few  vacant  places  at  the  tables. 

After  grace  had  been  said  by  Rev.  D.  T.  Fiske,  D.  D.,  of  Newbury- 
port,  the  company  were  invited  to  partake  of  the  viands  set  before 
them.  While  dinner  was  being  served  by  J.  Dooling  of  Boston, 
caterer,  the  orchestra,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Thomas  M.  Carter  of 
Boston,  played  the  following  selections  of  music : 

1.  Overture— "Tantalusqualen." Suppe. 

2.  Reminiscences  of  Verdi Biviere. 

When  dinner  had  been  disposed  of.  President  Cun-ier  called  the 
company  to  order,  and  said: 

lM,clies  and  Gentlemen: — It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  repeat  the 
words  of  welcome,  spoken  by  the  President  of  the  Historical  Society, 
at  City  Hall  this  morning,  but  I  will  improve  the  opportunity  to  thank 


78  TWO    HUXOaED    AXD    FIFTIETH    AKNIVERSARY 

you  for  your  kind  attention  and  attendance  here  today,  and  to  assure 
\'0U  that  your  hearty  CD-operation  and  support  have  made  it  possible 
for  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  to  successfully  carry  out  the  plans 
matured  by  them. 

There  are  still  some  interesting  exercises  to  occupy  your  time  and 
attention  for  the  remainder  of  the  afternoon.  And  now  that]  din- 
ner is  over  and  the  substantial  viands  are  disposed  of,  it  is  my 
pleasant  and  agreeable  duty  to  invite  you  to  remain  and  partake  of 
the  intellectual  feast  thit  is  to  follow.  In  the  exercise  of  the  preoga- 
tive  of  my  office,  as  President  of  the  Day,  I  shall  call  upon  many 
gentlemen  of  eminent  ability,  to  address  you.  The  remarks  they  will 
offer  will  necessarily  be  brief,  as  the  number  to  be  heard  from  is 
large  and  the  time  is  limited.  But  the  concentrated  wit  and  wisdom 
of  these,  as  yet,  unspoken  speeches,  will  compensate  in  part  for  their 
brevity.  It  would  perhaps  be  your  duty  to  sit  patiently  and  quietly  in 
yoir  seats  and  listen  attentively  to  some  extended  remarks,  which  the 
formalities  of  the  occasion  would  seem  to  require  from  me,  but  I  shall 
spare  you  that  painful  necessity,  and  yield  the  time  to  others  who,  I 
am  sure,  will  interest  and  instruct  you.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  pre- 
sentation of  topics,  suggested  by  the  events  we  commemorate,  a  toast- 
master  has  been  appointed,  and  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
to  you  P.  K.  Hills,  esq.,  of  Newburyport,  who  has  consented  to  act  in 
that  capacity,  and  will  announce  the  sentiments  that  have  been  pre- 
pared. 

The  Toast-master  then  offered  as  the  first  regular  toast. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  : 

On  this  occasion  we  are  all  Democrats,  we  are  all  Republicaas.      Likewise,  we 
have  had  an  ample  share  of  the  loaves  and  fishes. 

President  Currier  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  Old  Newbury  has  always  been  patriotic  and 
prompt  in  the  support  of  the  national  government.  On  this  occasion 
she  offers  the  courtesies  and  civilities  due  to  the  chief  magistrate  of 
the  nation,  and  I  invite  the  band  to  respond  with  some  patriotic  air. 

The  band,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  T.  M.  Carter,  then  playe  d 
"  Hail  Columbia." 

The  Toast-master  announced  as  the  second  regular  toast : 
The  State  of  Massachusetts: 

We  repeat  the  language  of  her  distinguished  citizen,  Daniel  Webster,  on  a 
memorable  occasion.     "  There  she  is.    There  is  her  history,  the  world  knows  it 
by  heart.    The  past  at  least  is  secure." 
-^  President  Cumer  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — In  the  absence  of  the  Governor  of  the 
Commonwealth,  I  shall  ask  the  President  of  the  Senate  to  respond  to 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF   NEAVBLRY.  79 

this  sentiment,  and  as  he  is  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  old  Newbury 
families  he  is  entitled,  by  ties  of  kinship  as  well  as  by  virtue  of  his 
office,  to  be  heard  on  this  occasion.  I  take  great  pleasure  in  present- 
ing to  you  Hon.  Albert  E.  Pillsbury  of  Boston.  >!S^^^^ 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  A.  E.  PILLSBURY.  ff  I 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — I  had  almost  forgotten, 
until  reminded  by  the  chairman,  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  ^as 
here  (laughter).  As  five  or  six  generations  of  my  ancestors  lived  and  ~~''— 
died  here  through  a  period  of  150  years,  I  can  fairly  claim  to  be,  if  not 
a  son,  at  least  a  grandson  of  Old  Newbury,  and  it  suits  me  better  to 
consider  that  I  am  here  by  right  of  descent,  rather  than  in  an  official 
capacity.  Looking  into  the  history  of  my  ancestors,  while  I  am  by  no 
means  in  the  habit  of  lamenting  the  degeneracy  of  these  times,  I  am 
struck  by  what  appears  to  be  a  marked  decadence  in  our  family.  I 
find  that  my  ancestors  in  old  Newbury  were  farmers,  mechanics  and 
men  exercising  other  honest  avocations  of  character,  but  I  am  obliged 
to  admit  that  in  late  years  we  have  lapsed  into  lawyers,  doctors,  minis- 
ters, and  members  of  the  Legislature.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  But 
so  strong  were  the  moral  influences  of  your  old  town  that  it  was  not 
until  the  passage  of  many  generations  after  they  had  left  your  midst 
that  this  descent  began,  and  so  Old  Newbury  is  not  responsible  for  it. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  not  speaking  to  the  sentiment  to  which  you 
asked  me  to  respond.  I  regret,  as  you  all  do,  the  absence  of  His  Ex- 
cellency the  Governor  from  an  occasion  on  which  I  know  he  would  like 
to  be  present,  when  he  would  have  done  full  justice  to  the  sentiment 
and  to  you.  But  I  cannot  deny  that  I  am  proud  to  be,  even  by  acci- 
dent, in  a  position  to  speak  for  Massachusetts.  Our  Commonwealth 
has  often  been  praised  by  eloquent  lips.  But  in  her  character,  her  in- 
stitutions, her  laws,  she  speaks  for  herself  with  a  voice  more  eloquent 
than  that  of  any  orator.     (Great  applause). 

If  you  read  the  records  of  Old  Newbury,  you  may  trace  in  the  lives 
and  deeds  of  her  people  the  elements  which  have  made  Massachusetts 
foremost  among  the  commonwealths  of  this  foremost  nation  of  the 
world.  The  energy,  the  enterprise,  and  the  patriotism  which  charac- 
terizes them  has  made  Massachusetts  what  she  is.  I  was  reminded  this 
morning,  in  listening  to  the  eloquent  address  of  the  president  of  Dart- 
mouth College,  that  it  was  the  men  of  Newbury  who  first  discovered 
that  taxed  tea  was  not  healthy  for  the  American  constitution ;  and  the 
men  of  Newbury,  a  little  later,  launched  the  first  privateer  against 
British  commerce,  and  sent  almost  the  first  Massachusetts  troops  into 
the  Continental  anny.     It  was  the  quality  of  these  men  of  Newbury 


80  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

and  their  contemporaries  which  gives  Massachusetts  her  rank.  She 
was  foremost  in  the  Revohition  ;  her  voice  was  most  potent  in  estab- 
lishing the  new  government,  and  in  the  great  constitutional  debates  in 
which  it  was  shaped  and  settled  into  permanence.  She  was  the  first  in 
attacking  the  institution  of  slavery  and  first  in  rallying  to  the  defence 
of  the  government  against  the  armed  assault  of  the  slave  power.  This 
is  part  of  the  past  of  Massachusetts ;  and  "  the  past,"  said  Webster, 
"is  secure." 

What  shall  be  her  future?  The  future  of  Massachusetts  is  in  our 
hands.  The  foundations  of  her  prosperity  have  been  laid  broad  and 
deep  in  the  common  school  system  and  in  the  industries  which  have 
been  established  here  on  this  barren  soil  where  agriculture  cannot  com- 
mand a  subsistence  for  our  teeming  population,  and  which  are  and  will 
remain  the  sources  of  her  material  prosperity. 

Forty  years  ago  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  Englishmen,  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  author  of  a  life  of  Jefferson,  avowed  his  contempt  for 
Jefferson's  character  and  principles  and  predicted  the  downfall  of  the 
American  republic. 

"Your  constitution,"  said  he,  "is  all  sail  and  no  ballast.  We  can  in 
our  country  repress  uprising  with  a  strong  hand,  but  in  your  country 
where  the  people  are  the  ruling  power,  you  will  one  day  sink  to  anar- 
chy or  succumb  to  the  strong  hand  of  a  Caesar." 

But  Macaulay  forgot  that  the  character  of  our  institutions  makes 
every  man  a  stockholder  in  the  State.  A  man  who  has  a  house  and  lot 
is  a  tolerably  safe  citizen ;  a  man  who  has  a  wife  and  child  is  not  a  dan- 
gerous citizen.  The  man  who  has  a  home  and  family  of  his  own  is  ab- 
solutely safe.  He  can  be  trusted  to  share  the  government,  and  while 
every  member  of  our  community  can  enjoy  the  advantages  of  educa- 
tion and  his  share  of  the  fruits  of  industry,  we  shall  disappoint  Ma- 
caulay's  prophecy,  and  the  republic  will  stand  secure. 

But  I  am  reminded,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  we  must  be  brief.  The 
people  of  Massachusetts,  who  know  your  history  and  virtues,  are  cele- 
brating this  anniversary  with  you  today.  They  rejoice  in  your  past 
prosperity  and  they  wish  you  all  that  you  may  deserve  and  achieve  in 
the  future. 

Thanking  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  your  association  for  your  kind  in- 
vitation, I  yield  to  gentlemen  from  whom  you  and  I  are  alike  desirous 
to  hear. 

The  Toast-master  then  announced  the  third  regular  toast : 

The  Yachtsmen  of  Ouk  Coast: 

Represented  among  us  today  by  Benjamin  Franklin  Butler,  lawyer,  soldier, 
statesman,  and  commander  of  the  yacht  America. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  81 

Responded  to,  in  the  absence  of  General  B.  F.  Butler,  by  the  reading 
of  the  following  letter  from  that  gentleman,  and  by  music  from  the 
band. 

Boston,  June  6,  1885. 
My  Dkae  Mb.  Pabton: 

Nothing  would  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  join  the  Newbury  Festival,  but 
that  takes  place  on  Wednesday,  the  10th,  on  which  very  day  I  must  be  in  New 
York  in  court  in  the  Hoyt  will  case,  which  will  imperatively  prevent  my  being 
present.    Nothing  but  such  an  engagement  would  keep  me  away. 
Yours  truly, 

Benj.  F.  Butler. 
James  Pabton,  Esq.,  Newbury  port,  Mass. 

The  Toast-master  then  read  the  fourth  regular  toast : 
OuB  Distinguished  Guests  feom  neighbobing  towns. 

President  Currier  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — Among  those  who  honor  us  with  their 
presence  here  today  is  one  who  has  spoken  earnestly  and  eloquently, 
on  many  public  occasions,  to  audiences  gathered  within  the  limits  of 
Old  Newbury.  You  remember  his  glowing  words  and  graceful  tributes 
in  times  past,  and  will  be  glad  to  hear  from  him  again  on  this  occasion. 
I  therefore  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  Hon.  George  B. 
Loring,  of  Salem,  Mass. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  GEORGE  B.  LORING. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I 
have  no  idea  whatever  of  the  toast  to  which  I  am  expected  to  respond. 
If  there  is  such  a  thin'g  I  would  be  glad  now  to  hear  it,  in  order  that 
my  mind  may  be  directed  to  it  in  some  way. 

The  Toastmaster :  We  thought  that  our  guests  from  neighboring 
cities  were  so  distinguished  that  they  needed  no  toast. 

Mr.  Loring :  I  presume  then,  Mr.  Pi-esident,  that  this  is  simply  an 
ovation  to  me  and  I  am  toast  enough  for  the  occasion.  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  Usually  in  all  such  cases  elsewhere  I  find  myself  called 
upon  to  respond  to  the  broad  and  general  subject  of  agriculture. 
I  am  somewhat  disappointed  today  that  it  has  not  been  brought 
up,  because  it  makes  me  feel  that  I  am  out  of  an  occupation.  I 
have  seen  the  time  when  the  mention  of  that  word  made  my  heart 
thrill  with  ecstacy.  Now  the  circumstances  of  my  life  have  so  matei'ially 
changed  that  I  feel  in  this  Puritan  assembly  much  as  the  royal  martyr 
of  English  history  probably  felt,  of  whom  the  great  orator  of  Essex 
county  says :  "  the  Puritans  buried  crown  and  mitre  and  the  headless 
trunk  of  a  decapitated  monarch  beneath  their  immortal  institutions  of 
11 


82  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

freedom."  If  I  am  anything  now  I  am  no  more  than  a  headless  trunk 
of  an  agricultural  monarch  decapitated  by  modern  Puritan  reform  and 
buried  beneath  a  purified  civil  service.  (Laughter.)  But  I  do  love  the 
occupation  still,  and  considering  the  fact  that  after  all  the  trials  and 
tribulations  of  Washington  life,  I  have  returned  to  my  farm  to  resume 
my  pitch-fork,  I  presume  I  may  yet  be  coiinted  a  fanner.  But  it  is  not 
for  agriculture  alone  that  this  spot  where  we  have  assembled  is  noted. 
True,  the  occupation  of  the  land  was  the  great  object  of  the  settlement, 
and  the  law  of  citizen  pi-oprietorship  of  the  soil  and  freehold  was  applied 
here  among  the  first  spots  dedicated  to  free  institutions  on  this  conti- 
nent. The  individualism  which  characterizes  the  American  today  was 
planted  along  these  shores  by  the  hardy  settlers  whose  names  still  re- 
main in  this  community  to  tell  who  founded  here  the  most  indepen- 
dent form  of  state  and  society  known  on  earth.  These  ancient 
homes,  these  old  farms,  the  meandering  highways  laid  out  by  the  pio- 
neers in  the  forests  which  darkened  this  broad  landscape,  all  tell  of  a 
brave  resolution  and  a  solemn  consciousness  of  the  duties  which  Prot- 
estant Englishmen  assumed  when  they  sundered  the  ties  which  bound 
them  to  the  old  world,  and  bound  themselves  to  develop  and  vitalize 
the  new.  It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  picture  to  ourselves,  or  even  to 
imagine  the  hardness  and  earnestness  and  solemnity  of  the  life  led  by 
our  fathers  in  their  scattered  homes.  A  rude  hut,  hastily  constructed  by 
the  settler,  protected  his  family  from  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold — 
but  contained  none  of  the  equipments  which  domestic  economy  now 
considers  indispensable,  none  of  the  luxuries  and  adornments  which 
have  now  become  common  necessities  to  all.  The  simplest  furni- 
ture, often  stiff  and  ungraceful,  was  scantily  scattered  through  the 
rooms.  A  wide  chimney  bore  from  a  broad  hearth  a  large  propoition 
of  the  heat  created  by  a  lavish  use  of  fuel.  How  meagre  was  the 
food !  How  simple  were  the  morning  and  the  noontide,  and  the  even- 
ing meal !  How  solemn  the  silence  of  the  night  which  hung  over  that 
humble  dwelling!  How  hard  the  piercing  blast  of  winter!  How  fear- 
ful the  isolation !  It  is  indeed  hard  for  us  to  conceive  the  trials  which 
beset  the  early  colonists,  the  fortitude  which  kept  them  true  at  all  times 
to  the  duty  they  had  imposed  upon  themselves.  Their  joys  were  sim- 
ple, their  pleasures  few.  Art  and  music  did  nothing  to  beautify  their 
lives.  Their  literature  was  serious,  didactic,  controversial,  theological, 
cold.  They  felt  that  they  were  engaged  in  a  solemn  work,  and  all 
around  them  the  air  was  filled  with  superstitions  and  omens  and  por- 
tents and  evil  spirits  with  whom  they  were  engaged  in  constant  war- 
fare. But  their  homes  were  their  own.  The  farmer  who  devoted  him- 
self to  his  isolated  farm  and  reaped  from  it  the  support  of  his  family, 


OK   THE    SETTLEMENT   OF   NEWBURY.  83 

felt  the  weight  of  social  and  civil  duties  resting  heavily  upon  him,  and 
recognized  his  obligations  to  the  religious  organization  to  which  he  be- 
longed. He  toiled  for  the  scantiest  subsistence ;  but  he  drew  inspiration 
for  his  work,  from  the  thought  that  in  his  hands  rested  an  experiment 
of  government  without  whose  success  there  could  be  no  real  power  or 
prosperity  on  this  continent.  He  was  a  farmer,  a  land-holder — but  he 
was  also  a  magistrate,  a  pillar  of  the  church,  a  servant  of  the  Lord. 

Not  then  upon  the  land  alone  did  he  toil.  It  is  not  for  practical 
agriculture  alone  that  Newbury  was  noted.  She  reared  men  whose 
power  was  felt  in  other  paths,  and  made  for  her  the  brilliant  record  we 
have  heard  today.  Before  her  sons  the  distinguished  guests  of  this  oc- 
casion lose  their  distinction.  The  renown  of  this  town  is  sufficient 
without  the  contribution  of  the  stranger.  How  have  our  hearts  been 
warmed  today  by  the  narration  of  the  lives  of  her  strong  and  powerful 
citizens!  We  rejoice  to  know  that  they  were  good  legislators,  good 
magistrates,  good  merchants,  good  theologians,  as  well  as  good  farmers, 
and  were  able  to  assert  themselves  on  all  occasions  for  right  and  free- 
dom and  humanity.  The  school  house  and  the  meeting  house  were  the 
temples  they  erected ;  and  education  and  religion  were  the  corner-stones 
of  the  structure.  And  in  this  work  they  achieved  great  success.  They 
built  up  the  most  prosperous  colony  on  these  shores,  and  they  also  ac- 
complished more  than  all  their  associates  in  providing  for  sound  learn- 
ing as  the  basis  of  all  their  efforts.  The  higher  branches  of  knowledge 
were  taught  in  all  the  towns.  The  high  school  and  the  Latin  school 
flourished.  On  Manhattan  an  institution  of  this  sort  languished  and  in 
two  years  laid  down  its  life.  New  England  boys  were  classical  schol- 
ars, wrote  theses  in  Latin,  conversed  in  Hebrew,  rejoiced  in  the  beau- 
ties of  Homer,  and  Sophocles,  and  Demosthenes.  They  wrote  the  pur- 
est English  of  their  times,  and  caught  their  phrases  from  the  great 
founders  of  the  English  tongue.  And  over  all  stood  their  great  univer- 
sity, a  power  in  every  crisis,  holding  for  many  generations  a  supreme 
sway,  and  only  in  our  own  day  overtaken  and  on  some  paths  out- 
stripped by  sister  colleges  which  have  gathered  around  her  on  every 
hand. 

Of  its  theological  work,  how  interesting  the  story !  The  Puritan 
meeting  house,  what  a  tale  it  could  tell  of  devout  feeling,  of  ardent, 
well-detined  faith,  of  manly  protest,  of  patriotic  inspiration,  of  solemn 
appeal  for  the  truth  and  right !  The  Puritan  minister,  what  a  life  of 
holy  zeal,  and  devotion  to  moral  and  intellectual  culture,  and  healthy 
influence,  and  unshaken  courage,  and  self-sacrifice  was  his!  What  an 
army  of  social  and  civil  leaders  he  sent  from  his  dignified  home  into 
every  walk  in  life!     This  then  is  the  work  the  Puritan  farmer  and 


84  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

teacher,  and  minister  of  the  gospel  has  accomplished  here.  Great  in 
every  duty  assigned  him,  he  was  indeed  a  great  American  citizen,  the 
founder  of  our  state  on  principles  which  neither  peace  nor  war  has 
shaken.  That  it  will  grow  stronger  and  stronger  until  his  hopes  and 
predictions  are  all  fulfilled,  who  can  doubt?  Those  of  you  who  are 
familiar  with  this  spot  need  not  be  reminded  of  those  who  have  made 
it  great.  All  I  can  say  to  you  therefore  is  to  remember  your  ancestors ; 
remember  their  traits,  and  remember  that  human  rights  and  human 
freedom,  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  liberty  of  self-assertion,  is  the 
great  law  of  America,  a  law  which  prevails  north,  east,  south,  and  west. 
All  questions  which  may  arise  in  conflict  before  the  people  will  settle 
themselves  amicably,  we  trust ;  and  the  great  American  faith  will  be 
maintained  by  all  its  citizens  in  all  time  to  come.  I  thank  you  for 
listening  to  me,  and  now  resign  my  place  to  those  gentlemen  who  will 
follow  me  with  more  eloquence,  wit,  and  wisdom  than  I  have  been  able 
to  demonstrate  on  this  present  occasion. 

At  the  close  of  Dr.  Loring's  address.  President  Currier  said : 
Toadies  and  Gentlemen: — Among  our  distinguished  guests  there  is 
another  gentleman  whom  you  will  be  interested  to  hear  on  this  occasion, 
and  I  shall  therefore  call  upon  him  to  address  you.  "Though  not 
native  here  nor  to  the  manner  born"  he  is  by  marriage  identified  with  at 
least  one  family  prominent  in  the  history  of  old  Newbury.  He  needs 
no  other  commendation  to  your  favor  and  kind  consideration.  If,  to 
your  sight,  his  form  and  features  are  unknown,  his  name  and  fame  are 
"familiar  to  your  ears  as  household  words."  I  have  now  the  honor  to 
present  to  you  Hon.  William  W.  Crapo  of  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  W.  CRAPO. 

Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Your  sister  city  by 
the  sea,  honored  today  in  this  kind  remembrance  of  her,  brings  to 
Newbury,  upon  her  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  birthday,  warm  and  hearty 
congratulations  and  words  of  good  cheer.  New  Bedford  looks  up  to 
her  as  to  an  older  sister,  proud  of  her  radiance  and  beauty,  and  emulous 
of  her  accomplishments  and  good  name.  Advancing  years  have 
brought  to  her  added  charms  and  increasing  attractiveness. 

I  have  listened  with  much  interest  and  pleasure  to  the  story  of  the 
achievements,  virtues,  learning  and  piety  of  the  early  settlers  of  old 
Newbury.  The  recital  unfolds  to  us  the  beginning  and  inspiration  of 
her  career  of  business  thrift  and  well  regulated  activities  on  land  and  sea, 
and  of  her  leadership  and  influence  in  the  politics,  thought  and  progress 
of  New  England.  Your  fathers  were  men  of  high  purposes,  of  sturdy 
manliness  and  of   persistent  endeavor.     Regardless  of    hardship,  un- 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  S^ 

mindful  of  discouragements,  they  founded  a  community  and  stamped  it 
so  strongly  with  the  impress  of  their  intelligence,  integrity  and  enter- 
prise that  two  centuries  and  a  half  have  not  effaced  or  dimmed  the 
characters.  These  men  are  worthy  the  homage  of  your  grateful  re- 
membrance; they  deserve  the  tribute  of  your  hearty  and  eloquent 
utterances. 

I  have  enjoyed  the  manifestations  of  your  loyalty  to  the  old  home, 
your  fondness  for  its  quaint  and  notable  local  traditions,  your  pride  of 
ancestry  and  your  love  for  the  ancient  landmarks.  This  enjoyment, 
however,  is  checked  by  the  consciousness  that  I  was  not  bom  within 
the  territorial  limits  of  your  ancient  town.  But  I  should  not  be  blamed 
for  this.  It  really  was  no  fault  of  mine.  The  option  was  not  given 
me  whether  my  birth-place  should  be  on  the  banks  of  the  Merrimack  or 
on  the  shore  of  Buzzard's  Bay.  But  I  have  done  what  I  could,  and  the 
best  I  could,  to  remedy  this  early  defect  or  misfortune,  which  ever  you 
may  regard  it.  When  I  reached  the  years  of  discretion,  with  the 
world  before  me,  in  the  exercise  of  a  sound  judgment  and  a  free  vo- 
lition, I  married  a  daughter  of  Newburyport,  a  descendant  of  one  of 
the  early  pioneers.  If  not  as  a  son,  then  as  a  son-in-law,  I  come  to 
your  family  table.  The  orator  of  the  day  has  spoken  eloquently  and 
justly  of  the  excellencies  of  the  sons  of  Newbury.  I  can  speak  of  the 
perfection  of  the  daughters.  And  speaking  of  them  with  all  candor 
and  from  abundant  knowledge,  in  their  presence  which  furnishes  ready 
confirmation,  I  assert  they  are  the  prettiest  of  girls,  as  good  as  they 
are  beautiful,  the  loveliest  of  wives  and  the  best  of  mothers. 

The  history  of  Newburyport,  during  the  last  century,  illustrates  the 
radical  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  commercial  methods  of 
the  world.  The  time  was  when  Newburyport  had  a  name  and  a  con- 
spicuous position  in  the  commerce  of  both  hemispheres.  Her  artisans 
built  ships  which  for  beauty,  strength  and  speed  were  not  surpassed  by 
those  of  any  nation ;  her  sailors  were  famous  for  their  daring  and  sea- 
manship ;  her  merchants  were  known  far  and  near  for  their  business 
sagacity,  mercantile  honor  and  unquestioned  financial  credit.  The 
Newburyport  boy  entered  the  counting-room  where  he  sei'ved  an  ap- 
prenticeship in  thoroughly  mastering  its  details.  Later  on,  as  super- 
cargo, he  went  to  China,  South  America,  and  the  North  West  Coast, 
studying  the  habits  and  customs  of  foreign  people,  making  himself 
familiar  with  their  products  and  wants,  and  learning  the  best  methods 
for  the  profitable  interchange  of  commodities.  After  several  voyages 
he  returned  to  the  -Gounting-room  on  the  wharf,  with  a  mind  broadened 
and  the  possessor  of  rich  stores  of  knowledge  to  be  made  practically 
useful  in  his  future  career  as  a  merchant.     In  those  days  there  were 


86  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

merchants,  now  there  are  brokers.  In  those  days  the  merchants  with 
painstaking  thoughtfulness  and  consummate  skill  planned  long  voyages, 
selecting  with  rare  judgment  cargoes  for  foreign  markets,  arranging 
credits  with  the  precision  of  a  minister  of  finance,  determining  months 
in  advance  his  return  cargo  and  securing  its  arrival  at  the  home  port 
upon  a  market  of  highest  prices.  Now  the  broker  sits  in  his  office  in 
New  York  or  Boston,  inquires  by  cable  of  Hong  Kong,  St.  Petersburg, 
or  Montevideo  the  today's  prices  of  tea,  hemp,  or  hides,  makes  his  pur- 
chases and  charters  vessels  by  telegraphic  message,  and  before  going 
to  his  dinner  sells  his  cargo  to  arrive,  contented  with  a  margin  of  one- 
eighth  or  one-sixteenth  of  one  per  cent,  for  his  trouble,  while  he  relies 
upon  the  frequency  and  magnitude  of  his  transactions  to  gain  a  liveli- 
hood. Mankind  has  gained  in  the  comforts  and  economies  of  life  by 
this  rapidity  of  communication  and  transportation;  but  the  new 
methods  of  business  have  called  into  operation  new  faculties  and  new 
agencies,  and  the  trained  merchant  of  former  days  is  no  longer  a 
necessity.  These  merchants  of  the  old  school  were  your  most  liberal 
and  public  spirited  citizens ;  they  were  the  leaders  and  promoters  of 
every  moral,  intellectual  and  social  improvement.  Essex  county  has 
been  enriched  not  simply  by  the  honestly  acquired  wealth  of  her  great 
merchants,  but  far  more  by  their  example  of  mercantile  honor  and  by 
their  generous  philanthropies. 

The  Toast-master  announced  as  the  fifth  regular  toast: 

The  Memory  of  Geoege  Ltjnt: 

Our  poet  fifty  years  ago,  and  our  poet  of  today.  He  has  gone  from  us  full  of 
years  and  honors.  His  works  and  his  memory  remain,  a  possession  to  us  and  our 
posterity. 

President  Currier  then  offered  the  following  remarks : 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — I  desire  to  say  that  the  verses  to  be  read  in 
response  to  this  sentiment  were  composed  by  the  author  only  a  short  time 
previous  to  his  death.  When  the  printer's  proof  was  sent  to  him  for 
correction  he  was  no  longer  living,  and  the  verses  have  been  allowed  to 
stand  as  they  were  first  written.  As  his  last  literary  work  they  have 
peculiar  interest  for  us  today.  If  you  will  give  your  attention  they 
will  now  be  read  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  D.  Wildes  of  New  York,  a 
nephew  of  the  author. 

ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  GEORGE  D.  WILDES,  D.  D.  LL.  D. 

Mr.  Chairman: — In  behalf  of  his  kinsfolk  and  friends,  I  beg  to 
thank  your  committee  for  the  wholly  just  and  fitly  expressed  sentiment 
in  memory  of  my  lately  deceased  and  venerated  uncle.  When,  this 
morning,  as  one  of  your  invited  guests,  I  came  to  this,  my  birthplace 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT   OF   NEWBCRY.  87 

and  early  home,  it  was  with  the  expectation  of  simply  reading  to  you 
the  brief  ode  which,  at  years  beyond  the  extremest  limit  of  the 
Psalmist's  measure,  and  but  a  short  time  before  his  death,  Mr.  Lunt  had 
wittten  for  this  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement 
of  "  Old  Newbury."  I,  however,  found  myself  assigned  to  a  sentiment 
deeply  interesting  and  gi-ateful  to  me  indeed,  but  which,  under  the 
special  circumstances,  I  am  glad  will,  at  a  later  hour,  meet  with  fitting 
response  from  another  son  of  Newbury. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chaii-man,  holding  in  my  hands  the  manuscript  of  the 
ode,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  can  utter  even  the  very  brief  words  which 
you  expect  from  me.  From  my  childhood,  and  as  though  I  were  his 
son,  I  have  been  in  receipt  of  countless  letters  from  Mr.  Lunt.  Through- 
out the  days  of  school  life,  whether  at  the  old  "  High  School "  of  New- 
burypoit,  or  at  Dummer,  and  especially  at  Exeter  where,  as  a  pupil 
under  the  great  master.  Dr.  Abbott,  Mr.  Lunt  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  scholarship  in  the  classics  which,  notably  in  the  Greek,  eventually 
ranked  him  as  among  the  first  of  his  own  time  at  Harvard ;  or  whether 
in  my  own  college  and  seminary  life ;  nay,  up  through  all  the  period  of 
my  now  lengthened  ministry,  I  have  been  the  almost  constant  recipient 
of  his  letters  of  aflfectionate  thoughtfulness  and  admirable  counsel.  I 
look  at  this  manuscript.  "  How  my  heart  trembles  while  my  tongue  re- 
lates." Never  before  has  the  strong,  clear  imprint  of  his  facile  pen,  so  in- 
dicative of  his  own  manly  and  straightforward  character,  come  to  my 
eye,  marked  by  signs  of  failing  strength.  His  very  last  note  to  me  in  re- 
ference to  the  ode  itself,  and  his  own  wish  once  more  to  return  hither 
and  to  be  present  today,  betrays  little  of  that  which  now  somewhat  tasks 
the  eye,  and  inevitably  moves  the  heart  to  a  tearfulness,  which  must  be 
my  plea  for  the  briefest  utterances  of  a  loving  kinsman.  And  yet, 
prompted  alike  by  my  own  feeling  and  the  admirable  tribute  of  your 
sentiment,  how  gladly  and  reverently — here  within  but  a  few  rods  of 
his  so  recent  burial — would  I  say  more  than  the  already  prolonged  ser- 
vices of  the  day  warrant.  I  might  speak  of  the  ancestry  of  George 
Lunt ;  on  both  sides,  and  from  the  day  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury, 
of  worthy  mention  in  its  now  almost  hoary  annals.  I  might  speak  of 
the  men  of  his  ancestry,  as,  for  the  most  part,  "men  of  the  sea."  Him- 
self, never,  as  is  said  of  the  Roger  Ascham  of  the  time  of  Elizabeth, 
"a  far  travelled  man," — the  line  of  the  ocean  horizon  seen  from  this 
familiar  "March's  Hill"  of  his  boyhood,  being  perhaps  the  farthest 
limit  of  his  voyaging  eastward, — George  Lunt  was  a  dear  lover  of  the 
sea.  There  is  scarcely  anything  from  his  pen,  whether  in  prose  or 
poetry,  which,  as  though  the  ocean  were  a  grand  personality,  does  not 
betray  intimate  communion  with  all  its  moods.     In  all  memories  and 


88  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FItTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

associations  of  our  childhood,  wherever  some  of  us  have  gone,  has 
also  gone  with  us,  even  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, "  the  rote  of  the  beaches ;" 
which  seems  ever  to  have  been,  whether  in  storm  or  its  "  aftermath 
of  lower  moan,"  an  element  of  influence  in  whatever  he  wrote  or  said. 
Mr.  Longfellow,  himself  of  Newbury  origin,  once  told  me  that  whether 
translating  the  Sagas  of  Norseland,  or  in  any  writing  of  his,  the  sound 
of  the  sea,  as  he  heard  it  in  his  boyhood  at  Portland,  was  seldom  with- 
out its  charm  and  power.  The  "  Hampton  Beach  "  of  his  earlier  poetry 
is  the  epitome  of  the  many  and  varied  ways  in  which  George  Lunt 
was,  if  not  a  sailor,  at  least,  under  the  law  of  heredity,  a  seaman. 
His  poem  entitled  "  The  Mayflower,"  is  at  once  an  illustration  of  this, 
and  apt  to  our  commemoration.     I  quote  its  last  verse : 

"  And  far  as  rolls  the  swell 
Of  Time's  retumless  sea, 
Where  empires  rise  and  fall 
Their  Pilgrim  fame  shall  be." 

The  lateness  of  the  hour,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  what  I  imagine  is  to  be 
the  appropriate  complement,  in  keeping  with  the  occasion,  of  what  has 
gone  before,  admonishes  me  that  I  have  said  enough.  If  I  had  spoken 
to  the  sentiment  originally  assigned  me,  "  The  Old  Families  of  New- 
bury," I  think  it  was,  it  would  have  been  grateful  to  have  said  some- 
thing of  Paul  Lunt,  the  valiant  captain  of  the  company  from  Newbury 
at  Bunker  Hill.  Some  years  since  George  Lunt  showed  me  the  "Or- 
derly Book  "  of  that  company.  I  wish,  with  its  record  of  "  duty  done," 
it  were  here  today.  In  the  provincial  wars  there  were  Lunts,  of  the  an- 
cestry of  George  Lunt,  at  Louisburg  and  on  other  memorable  occasions. 
When  Paul  Jones  sought  out  at  the  Hague,  in  Holland,  young  masters 
and  mates  of  American  vessels,  there  paroled  prisoners,  for  manning 
the  "Bon  Homme  Richard"  for  the  flght  with  the  newly  built  British 
frigate  "  Serapis," — immortal  in  its  results  in  the  history  of  the  Revo- 
lution— next  to  the  afterward  Commodore  Dale,  he  selected  for  his 
second  and  third  lieutenants  two  young  men  of  Newbury,  Henry  and 
Cutting  Lunt.  '''■Joppa "  kneic  them  as  boys  by  the  riverside.  The  al- 
most unexampled  and  victorious  night  battle  off  Flamborough  Head, 
placed  them,  as  in  one  or  another  way,  among  the  heroes  of  the  re- 
public. 

Suffer  me  a  word  in  closing,  I  must  hurry  for  the  train  ;  but  the 
father  of  George  Lunt  was  my  own  grandfather,  and  his  mother — a 
widow  almost  from  her  youth  up  to  her  death — the  grandmother,  of 
whom,  at  the  grand  return  of  sons  and  daughters  of  Newburyport, 
in  1854,  I  had  occasion  in  the  oration  of  that  day  to  make  what  St. 
Paul  terms  "good  remembrance."     The  father  of  my  honored  kinsman, 


Of   the   SEOTLEMENT   0¥  NEWBURY.  89 

after  a  life  of  thirty-eight  years,  illustrated  by  a  service  of  good  sea- 
manship, of  mercantile  integrity,  and  of  converse  with  great  events  in 
his  residence  in  Paris  for  years  during  the  Consulate  and  the  reign  of 
the  First  Napoleon,  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  merchants  of  the 
United  States,  rests  in  hope,  on  the  banks  of  the  Senegal  in  Africa. 
He  had  gone  thither  as  passenger  on  his  way  to  London,  in  a  vessel  of 
his  own,  on  business  affairs.  Abel  and  Joseph  Lunt,  both  of  whom, 
with  their  father,  are  remembered  today  by  an  old  merchant  of  New 
York — died,  the  one  by  shipwreck,  and  the  other  by  disease,  at  sea. 
Henry  Lunt,  remembered  by  some  here  today  present,  the  youngest  of 
the  sons,  sleeps  at  "  Greenwood,"  in  Brooklyn,  New  York — after  a  life 
of  varied  adventure;  distinguished  always  as  a  seaman  of  the  first 
class — buried  in  a  lot  "beautiful  for  situation,"  the  memorial  offering  of 
1000  children  of  a  Sunday  school  in  Brooklyn,  which,  in  his  later  years 
of  a  stormy  life,  eventually  devoted  to  the  service  of  his  and  our  Mas- 
ter, he  had  been  instrumental  in  forming  and  perfecting.  Thus  ends 
my  record,  Mr.  Chairman.  I  pray  forgiveness  for  thus  filling  the  hour 
with  what,  if  in  some  wise  personal  and  of  family  interest,  seemed  to  me, 
not  wholly  away  from  what  every  son  and  lover  of  Newbury  would 
wish  more  than  anything  else  to  invest  and  mark  the  commemoration. 
And,  mindful  of  the  sacred  adage,  "he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh,"  will 
you  deem  it  quite  out  of  the  proprieties  of  the  occasion,  if  before  read- 
ing the  letter  and  the  ode,  and  remembering,  that  he  who,  years  ago, 
in  his  "Three  Eras  of  New  England"  wrote  what  I  am  about  to 
quote,  I  offer  as  if  from  his  lips  now  silent,  this  sentiment: 

"  The  fathers  of  New  England.  Their  personal  faults  passed  with  them  into 
the  grave, — their  just  principles  and  noble  actions  survived  and  blossomed  into  a 
living  harvest  of  sacred  and  immortal  memory." 

75  Hancock  Street,  Boston,) 
May  3d,  1885.  > 
Ml/  Bear  Sir : — I  enclose  the  poem  completed.  The  object  of  the  poem  is  to 
present  a  contrast  between  the  original  character  of  the  river  and  the  subsequent 
improvements  which  have  followed  the  multiplied  setttlements  upon  its  banks. 
These  could  only  be  alluded  to  in  verses  of  such  narrow  compass,  and  leave 
room,  therefore,  for  some  exercise  of  the  imagination.  It  is  adapted  to  be  either 
read  or  sung.  I  believe  the  measure  is  preserved.  In  case  of  the  name  "New- 
bury," it  is  necessarily  to  be  pronounced  as  of  two  syllables  instead  of  three,  and 
that,  I  think,  is  the  most  common  mode.  At  any  rate  the  syllables  run  into  each 
other  naturally.  Of  course  your  secretary  will  please  send  me  a  proof  in  due 
season,  that  I  may  correct  the  piece  if  necessary.  I  expect  to  be  in  the  city  ten 
days  or  a  fortnight  longer ;  after  that  in  Scituate. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Gborgk  Lunt. 
Hon.  J.  J.  Currier. 


90  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

ORIGINAL  ODE  BY  HON.  GEORGE  LUNT. 

THE    RIVER. 

1635—1885. 

From  forest-girt  hills  of  the  North 

The  springs  of  the  Merrimack  rise, 
Mad  river  in  concert  leaps  forth, 

And  wild  Amanoosuc  replies ; 
Till  down  through  the  ' '  Breakers  "  it  rolls 

And  the  sweep  of  the  terrible  bar, 
Where  cries  of  the  many  lost  souls 

Were  drowned  in  mad  ocean's  fierce  war. 

Up-stream  broods  a  silence  profound, 

Save  murmur  of  bird,  brook  and  tree. 
Or  footfalls  of  deer  strike  the  ground. 

Or  red-man  in  chase  dashing  free. 
Below,  stood  the  Fathers  of  old. 

The  soil  by  their  steps  yet  untrod. 
Their  hearts  steady,  honest  and  bold. 

In  trust  of  themselves  and  of  God. 

Soon  echoed  the  wide-spreading  wood, 

The  chopper's  stout  axe  gave  its  stroke ; 
Till  huts  by  the  banks  of  the  flood 

On  sight  of  the  wanderer  broke. 
Nor  long,  when  for  praise  and  for  prayer 

Its  face  the  rude  temple  uprears, 
And  Oxford  men  ministered  there. 

Of  men  in  its  halls  the  true  peers. 

Years  roll— fast  and  faster  float  down 
Long  rafts  of  the  forest-felled  spar, 

And  timbers  to  Newbury  towTi 
For  fleets  famed  in  seas  near  and  far. 

Oh,  river!  so  grand  on  thy  breast 

'  What  wealth  of  proud  trade  wafts  thy  name. 

Let  Nashua's  falls  still  attest, 
And  cities  akin  to  thy  fame. 

To  Newbury  award,  then,  the  meed. 

All  praise  to  her  sires  shall  be  given, 
They  sowed  here  the  old  pilgrim  seed, 

So  favored  of  earth  and  of  heaven. 
May  blessings  that  crowned  her  of  old 

Gather  thickly  in  each  coming  year, 
Her  children,  oh,  long  be  it  told. 

Mixed  joys,  hopes  and  memories  here. 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBrRY.  91 

The  Toastmaster  then  read  the  sixth  regular  toast : 

OuK  Legislatoes: 

Past  and  present,  old  and  young.  "  In  a  country  governed  by  law,  bad  laws 
are  of  all  bad  things  the  worst,  and  good  laws  are  of  all  good  things  the  best." 

President  Currier  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — The  representatives  to  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts  from  the  three  towns — Newbury,  West  Newbury  and 
Newburyport, — are  with  us  here  today.  In  the  performance  of  their 
official  duties  they  speak  for  all  who  live  "writhin  the  territorial  limits  of 
Old  Newbury.  On  this  occasion  I  shall  call  upon  Capt.  Henry  M. 
Cross  of  Newburyport  to  respond,  for  himself  and  his  associates,  to 
the  sentiment  that  has  just  been  proposed: 

ADDRESS  OF  CAPT.  HENRY  M.  CROSS. 

Mr.  President  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — As  it  now  requires 
about  sixteen  or  eighteen  thousand  of  our  fellow  citizens  to  furnish 
three  representatives  to  the  legislature,  or  as  it  used  to  be  called,  the 
Great  and  General  Court,  we  can  realize  of  course  that  a  seat  in  that 
august  body  appeals  to  the  ambition  and  pride  of  any  one  who  desires 
to  stand  well  in  the  opinion  of  his  fellow  citizens.  To  be  selected  to 
represent  such  a  constituency  as  this  in  the  Legislature  of  Massachu- 
setts is  no  small  honor,  and  that  our  friends  and  neighbors  should  think 
us  worthy  of  it  is  a  proper  cause  for  gratitude. 

But  faithful  attendance  and  earnest  and  conscientious  sei-vice  is  a  real 
burden  uy)on  our  time  and  strength,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  my  col- 
leagues, Mr.  Hale  of  Newburyport,  and  Mr.  Smith  of  West  Newbury, 
will  agree  with  me  in  saying  that  we  would  have  been  much  better 
pleased  with  our  positions  had  the  session  not  been  so  long.  That 
which  seems  to  be  a  prize  in  January,  is  a  burden  in  June. 

And  however  hard  we  work,  we  cannot  hope  to  make  any  pennanent 
individual  impression  upon  legislation  during  our  brief  terms,  and  so 
we  think  ourselves  foitunate  in  serving  this  year,  for  we  are  sure  of  the 
immortality  of  fame,  which  will  come  from  having  our  names  preserved 
in  the  records  of  this  anniversary.  I  had  just  spoken  of  the  great 
number  of  persons  from  whom  the  few  representatives  are  now  chosen. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  every  freeman  was  obliged  to  go  to 
the  great  and  general  court.  Every  church  member  was  a  freeman, 
and  every  freeman  was  bound  to  be  a  representative  and  come  to  the 
general  court  once  a  year.  Soon  after  the  foundation  of  the  town  it  was 
found  to  be  burdensome  to  go  so  often,  and  it  was  decided  that  some 


92  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

should  Stay  at  home  and  the  rest  should  send  their  votes  by  proxy. 
But,  Mr.  President,  the  chief  value  of  such  an  occasion  as  this  is  that 
in  looking  back  over  the  past  we  may  find  lessons  of  encouragement 
and  of  warning  to  apply  to  our  conduct  of  the  present,  and  thus  pre- 
pare for  a  wise  and  happy  future  for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us. 

The  New  England  system  of  town  government  and  the  state  legisla- 
ture which  was  evolved  from  it,  presents  the  highest  and  most  perfect 
ideal  of  a  real  democracy  which  has  ever  been  realized  anywhere  and 
in  any  age. 

But  this  perfect  form  of  government  was  not  reached  by  any  means 
in  the  first  hundred  years  of  the  colony.  It  was  an  evolution,  and  a 
growth,  rather  than  a  perfected  system  brought  with  them  by  the 
founders  of  the  commonwealth.  The  earliest  legislators  had  little 
thought  or  care  for  local  self  government.  The  General  Court  not 
only  dictated  as  to  the  affairs  of  the  several  towns,  but  as  to  the  con- 
duct of  individuals  in  regard  to  matters  which  have  long  since  been 
omitted  from  the  domain  of  the  government.  The  early  legislators 
concerned  themselves  with  such  matters  as  these :  that  Silas  Plunmier 
might  work  a  ferry  at  Newbury  and  charge  two  pence  for  each  passen- 
ger; that  the  price  of  beer  should  not  be  over  three  pence  per  quart, 
and  that  the  churches  in  Newbury  should  be  zealous  to  drive  out  the 
Anabaptists.  But  as  the  colony  grew,  and  as  the  opinions  of  the  people 
were  developed  under  their  new  surroundings,  the  theory  of  local  con- 
trol of  things  local,  and  legislative  control  of  things  general,  became 
fully  established.  And  so  it  came  to  be  that  in  the  old  Massachusetts 
towns  the  town  meeting  was  the  school  in  which  the  men  of  Massachu- 
setts received  that  political  training  which  has  made  this  a  model  com- 
monwealth. But  as  time  goes  on  and  the  towns  grow  into  cities,  and 
private  cares  and  interests  grow  more  urgent,  there  is  a  tendency  to- 
wards the  neglect  of  political  duties,  and  a  growing  willingness  to 
throw  upon  the  legislature  details  of  administration  which  belong  to 
the  municipalities.  All  of  this  is  pi-ogress  in  the  wrong  direction.  We 
should  always  hold  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  old  town  meeting 
theory  of  government.  The  old  contests  between  centralization 
and  local  self-government  are  always  renewed.  The  future  safety 
and  prosperity  of  the  State  and  of  the  nation  require  that  all  cit- 
izens should  take  a  constant  and  watchful  interest  in  public  affairs. 
The  democratic  idea,  using  the  word  only  in  its  broad  and  general 
sense,  has  always  been  strong  in  this  ancient  town,  and  I  believe  that  in 
the  future,  as  in  the  past,  the  voice  and  vote  of  old  Newbury  in  the 
Massachusetts  legislature  will  be  for  local  self-government,  for  popular 


OF   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBUKY.  93 

education,  and  for  the  equal  rights,  duties  and  privileges  of  all  men 
under  the  laws. 

The  Toastmaster  announced  the  seventh  regular  toast : 

Newbury  Old  Paeish: 
The  valor  and  worth  of  its  founders  give  peace  and  abimdance  to  its  people  today. 

President  Currier  said : 

Tjadies  and  Gentlemen : — The  early  records  of  the  town  of  New- 
bury and  of  the  Fii-st  Parish  are  substantially,  if  not  identically,  the 
same.  The  history  of  the  Parish  is,  in  fact,  the  history  of  the  town  for 
many  long  and  eventful  years.  A  member  of  that  Parish, — a  grand- 
son of  one  of  its  most  eminent  pastors, — will  respond  to  the  sentiment 
that  has  been  announced.  Allow  me  to  introduce  to  you  David  L. 
Withington,  esq.,  of  Newburyport. 

ADDRESS  OF  DAVID  L.  WITHINGTON,  ESQ. 

Mr.  President : — For  freedom's  sake  our  fathers  crossed  an  angry 
sea  to  an  unfriendly  clime  and  to  a  rock-bound  coast.  They  sought 
here  thus  afar  a  free  religion,  a  free  soil,  and  a  free  manhood.  They 
sought  to  found  here  a  conmionwealth  in  which  the  church  and  mu- 
nicipality should  go  hand  in  hand,  and  the  Divine  radiance  of  the  Gos- 
pel light  should  illumine  the  path  of  both.  A  conmionwealth  in  which 
the  temporal  authority  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  should  be  nothing, 
but  the  influence  of  the  teachings  of  the  gospel  upon  each  member  of 
the  community,  should  be  all  pervading.  If  I  might  be  permitted  to 
refer  to  what  has  already  been  said,  they  came  here  with  no  false  ideas 
of  political  equality,  an  out  growth  of  false  P'rench  systems  of  political 
economy,  but  with  the  broadest  ideas  of  the  freedom  of  religion,  of 
land  and  of  political  rights.  Such  were  the  foundations  laid  by  the 
fathers  on  which  to  rear  the  superstructure  of  this  great  nation. 

A  few  days  since  I  stood  in  a  crowded  thoroughfare  of  the  great 
epitome  and  metropolis  of  the  West.  In  the  crowd  which  hurried  by 
could  be  seen  the  faces  of  the  German,  the  Scandinavian,  the  Slav,  the 
Hibernian,  representatives  of  every  race  and  clime.  But  there  was 
something  in  every  face  which  gave  new  courage  to  a  heart  which  had 
sometimes  lately  despaired  of  the  republic.  I  saw  there  the  impress  of 
a  Puritan  superiority.  I  saw  the  birthmark  of  a  greater  New  England 
in  the  West.  I  saw  there  a  recognition  that  the  Yankees  were  the 
aristocracy  of  the  West,  the  object  which  it  was  the  ambition  of  each 
to  emulate,  the  thing  to  be,  and  I  said  to  myself,  here  is  a  victory,  com- 
pared with  which  even  an  internicine  strife  of  four  years,  wherein  the 


94  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

chivalry  of  the  South  went  down  before  the  yeomanry  of  the  North,  is 
as  nothing — a  victory  of  the  descendants  of  twenty- one  thousand  Puri- 
tans who  came  to  New  England  within  ten  short  years,  over  the  de- 
scendants of  six  millions  of  other  immigrants,  who  came  in  other 
times  and  to  other  States. 

To  what,  Mr.  President,  will  we  attribute  this  remarkable  capacity  in 
the  Puritan?  In  the  first  place,  to  the  uncompromising  but  enfranchis- 
ing and  elevating  character  of  their  religion.  There  is  something  in 
the  Augustinian  scheme  of  salvation,  as  expounded  by  the  great  theo- 
logian of  Geneva,  which  has  power  to  draw  heroic  qualities  out  of 
common  clay.  There  is  in  the  great  doctrines  of  foreordination  and 
irresistible  grace  the  abnegation  of  human  selfishness,  the  expression 
of  the  Divine  Providence;  for  human  ignorance  and  short-sighted- 
ness, they  substitute  the  Divine  Omniscience  and  Prescience;  for 
human  weakness  and  dependence,  the  Omnipotence  of  the  Everlasting 
Arms.  In  their  religion,  then,  I  find  the  first  cause  of  the  enduring 
and  persistent  qualities  of  this  race. 

The  second  chief  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the  town  meeting,  that  safe- 
guard against  bad  administration  and  safety-valve  of  patriotism.  Were 
I  to  characterize  the  town  meeting  in  a  word,  I  should  call  it  the  ever- 
present  hereafter  to  the  town  officer,  and  the  ever-present  tomorrow  to 
the  pati*iotic  citizen  who  would  feel  that  he,  too,  has  a  voice  and  a  share 
in  the  management  of  the  afifairs  of  the  community  in  which  he  dwells. 
From  the  time  I  was  ten  years  old  until  now,  it  has  been  my  delight  to 
attend  the  town  meetings  of  the  old  town  of  Newbury.  What  scenes 
have  I  there  witnessed !  How  many  manifestations  of  false  rhetoric  or 
reasoning  have  I  there  seen  exposed !  How  many  acts  of  selfishness  or 
improvidence  on  the  part  of  some  town  officer  have  I  seen  brought  to 
light  and  to  the  attention  of  the  town  in  a  manner  that  guar- 
anteed that  in  future  the  thing  would  be  better  done !  How  many 
scenes  of  turbulence  and  excitement!  Yet  when  the  record  was  made 
up,  how  wise  the  action,  and  how  satisfactory  the  result  of  the  meet- 
ing. If  I  might  compare  the  government  of  the  town  to  the  govern- 
ment of  a  city,  I  should  say  that  the  town  meeting  was  a  place  where 
everything  right  was  done  in  a  disorderly  manner,  the  meeting  of 
the  city  government,  where  everything  wrong  was  done  in  an  orderly 
manner. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  already  taken  too  much  of  your  time.  I  will 
simply  close  with  this  sentiment.  "The  New  England  meeting  house 
and  town  meeting;  perennial  springs  of  religious  and  political  life. 
May  their  intiuences  never  grow  less  elevating,  less  inspiring,  or  less 
copious." 


OP   THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  95 

The  Toastmaster  proposed  for  the  eighth  regular  toast : 

The  City  of  Newbfrypokt: 
The  veritable  hub  of  the  universe  to  its  inhabitants. 

President  Currier  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — In  the  absence  of  the  mayor,  an  honored 
citizen  of  Newburyport  will  respond  to  this  sentiment.  As  lawyer, 
soldier,  representative  and  senator  to  the  State  Legislature,  and  Mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  the  Seventh  Massachusetts  District,  he  is  w«ell 
known  to  you  all,  but  today  I  call  upon  him  as  an  ex-mayor  of  our  be- 
loved city,  to  address  you.  I  ask  now  for  your  attention  while  some 
remarks  appropriate  to  the  occasion  are  made  by  Hon.  Eben  F.  Stone 
of  this  city. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  EBEN  F.  STONE. 

Mr.  President : — I  regret  very  much  that  the  mayor  is  not  present 
to  respond,  in  his  agreeable  way,  to  the  sentiment  which  has  just  been 
read.  I  had  supposed  till  within  a  day  or  two,  that  he  would  be  here, 
but,  in  his  absence,  I  cannot  refuse,  when  called  on,  to  do  the  best  I  can 
in  behalf  of  my  native  city. 

It  is  well  for  us  as  a  people,  so  busy,  so  enterprising,  so  aggressive, 
so  intent  on  the  present,  so  eager  for  the  prizes  of  life,  so  often  es- 
tranged from  each  other  by  the  jealousies  and  rivalries  of  adverse  in- 
terests, that  there  comes,  now  and  then,  an  anniversary  day,  which,  by 
a  spell  of  its  own,  takes  us  out  of  the  present,  and  carries  us  back  to 
the  past,  that  lifts  us,  for  the  time,  above  the  level  of  selfish  considera- 
tions, and  quickens  into  new  life  the  sympathies  and  emotions,  so  hon- 
orable to  human  nature,  and  so  needed  to  stimulate  and  strengthen  the 
ties  of  friendship  and  of  good  neighborhood,  but  alas,  too  often  neg- 
lected and  crushed  out  by  the  fierce  antagonisms  that  seem  inseparable 
from  the  struggle  for  existence. 

We  are  here  to  commemorate  the  settlement  of  the  territory  of  Old 
Newbury  as  it  was  founded  250  years  ago.  It  is  my  native  place,  and 
my  heart  instinctively  warms  toward  it,  and  to  all  who  belong  to  it. 
Here,  many  of  my  ancestors  were  born,  and  some  of  them  were  of  the 
party,  who,  in  the  spring  or  early  summer  of  1635,  bade  farewell  to 
their  friends  in  Ipswich,  and  with  their  faithful  guides,  Parker  and 
Noyes,  went  their  way  through  Plum  Island  Sound  till  they  reached 
the  mouth  of  what  they  then  called  Quascacunquen  river,  which  they 
followed  for  a  short  distance  until  they  reached  the  upland  on  the 
northern  bank,  where  they  landed,  and  began  at  once  to  build  the  plan- 
tation which  had  been  authorized  by  the  vote  of  the  company  of  May 
6th,  1635.     They  selected  an  attractive  spot,  and,  as  things  were  then, 


96  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

presenting  many  advantages  to  the  emigrants  who  were  seeking  a  home 
in  the  wilderness;  easy  and  safe  water  communication  with  their 
friends  in  Ipswich ;  upland  and  pasture  and  extensive  meadows  afford- 
ing ample  scope  and  room  for  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  easily  pro- 
tected from  attack  by  the  Indians ;  the  Merrimack  abounding  in  sturgeon 
and  salmon,  and  other  fish,  while  the  flats  of  Plum  Island  Sound  were 
teeming  with  clams  and  other  shell  fish,  an  unfailing  source  of  subsist- 
ence, when  crops  might  suffer  from  too  much  or  too  little  rain. 

I  claim  a  lineal  descent  from  many  of  the  old  families  that  are  iden- 
tified with  the  early  life  of  Old  Newbury — with  the  Moodys,  the 
Poores,  the  Hales,  the  Somerbys,  the  Lowells,  the  Greenleafs,  the  Bart- 
letts,  the  Jacques,  the  Knights  and  the  Titcombs. 

The  entire  territory  of  Old  Newbury  has  a  charm  for  me.  I  know  its 
rocks,  its  woods  and  streams ;  Plum  Island  and  Oldtown  hill,  with  the 
salt  meadows  checkered  with  hay-stacks,  crossed  and  recrossed  with 
creeks  and  water-courses  full  to  their  brim  at  high  water,  and  stretch- 
ing their  level  reaches  from  the  Merrimack  to  the  distant  clear-cut  hills 
of  Ipswich ;  Oldtown,  with  its  farms  and  fields  that  lie  open  to  the  eye 
on  either  side  of  the  ridge  road,  reminding  us  of  English  scenery  by 
the  richness  and  variety  of  their  crops,  and  the  thoroughness  of  their 
culture ;  West  Newbury  with  its  green  hills — Pipestave,  Crane-neck, 
Indian  Hill  and  Archelaus ;  Bartlett  Springs,  Morse's  Swamp,  Devil's 
Den,  Four-Rock  Bridge,  Pine  Island,  and  Deer  Island,  Pearson's  Mills, 
Dummer's  Mills,  River  Parker,  Artichoke  and  Little  rivers,  and  enclos- 
ing all,  the  beautiful  Merrimack  and  the  inspiring  sea.  I  love  it  all ;  to 
me  it  is  sacred  ground,  "radiant  with  the  light  that  never  was  on  sea 
or  land,"  and  hallowed  by  dear  associations. 

Newbury,  when  settled,  was  a  frontier  town.  It  has  a  history  that 
will  repay  study  and  investigation.  The  story  of  the  first  settlers  is 
the  story  of  brave  men,  instinct  with  the  Puritan's  enthusiasm  for  his 
convictions,  and  selected  to  begin  this  plantation  because  of  their  fit- 
ness to  extend  the  frontier  of  Massachusetts  easterly,  and  to  hold  it 
against  the  P^rench  and  the  Indians.  I  would  like  to  speak  of  some  of 
the  circumstances  that  attended  the  settlement  of  the  old  town,  and 
gave  it,  I  think,  a  special  character.  I  would  like  to  speak  of  some  of 
the  men  who  were  identified  with  the  early  history  of  the  town,  of 
Daniel  Pierce,  of  Thomas  Noyes,  and  Caleb  Moody,  of  Capt.  Green- 
leaf,  and  Col.  Kent,  of  Edward  Rawson,  and  others  who  served  the 
town  faithfully  in  its  early  days,  but  I  will  use  the  little  time  at  my 
disposal  in  another  way. 

I  will  try  to  give  you  some  idea  of  the  commercial  and  social  life  of 
Newburyport  in  its  palmy  days,  of  its  sudden  rise,  and  of   its  sudden 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBUKY.  97 

fall.  No  place  that  I  know  of  has  experienced  such  violent  changes  of 
fortune,  in  a  short  period,  as  Newburyport.  It  was  marine  commerce 
that  made  it ;  it  was  the  sudden  disappearance  of  marine  commerce, 
the  result  of  causes  entirely  beyond  the  control  of  its  citizens,  that 
stopped  its  growth  prematurely,  and  postponed,  indefinitely,  hopes  and 
anticipations,  that  at  one  time  gave  promise  of  a  brilliant  future.  It 
was  the  West  Indian  trade,  that,  near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  was 
the  life  of  Newburyport.  It  was  the  rapid  growth  of  the  merchants 
engaged  in  this  trade,  the  success  of  Atkins,  Dalton,  Tracy,  and  others 
that  caused  a  conflict  of  interest  between  the  water-side  people  and  the 
farmers  and  land-holders  of  the  old  town,  that  ended  in  a  separation  in 
17fi4.  From  that  time  until  the  great  fire  of  1811,  and  the  war  of 
1812,  the  growth  of  Newburyport  was  very  extraordinary. 

In  1764  its  population  was  2,882 ;  in  1810,  7,634.  In  less  than  fifty 
years  the  population  had  increased  nearly  three-fold.  Its  increase  in 
wealth  was  quite  as  rapid.  Its  valuation  in  1802  was  $3,754,920.  In 
1811  it  was  $7,081,500,  nearly  doubling  in  less  than  ten  years.  But  its 
fall  was  more  sudden  than  its  rise.  In  1825  its  valuation  was  reduced 
from  over  $7,000,000  in  1811,  to  less  than  $2,500,000.  The  great  fire 
and  the  war  had  nearly  destroyed  the  place,  and  worked  a  radical 
change  in  the  social  life  and  domestic  habits  of  its  people.  As  an  illus- 
tration of  this  I  will  give  you  a  fact,  not  worthy,  perhaps,  of  the  dig- 
nity of  history,  but  very  significant.  In  1805  there  were  five  large 
livery  stables  in  the  town,  and  one  private  gentleman's  stable  of  forty 
horses,  besides  a  number  of  family  carriages.  In  1820  these  establish- 
ments were  all  closed,  and  the  family  carriages  sold  and  given  up. 

But  it  is  of  the  Revolutionary  period,  and  of  the  twenty-five  years 
immediately  following,  that  I  wish  especially  to  speak.  There  is  no 
part  of  her  history  where  our  beloved  town — I  cannot  think  of  it  as  a 
city — appears  so  well,  where  her  enthusiasm  and  patriotism  burn  so 
clear  and  strong,  reflecting  so  pure  a  light  on  the  character  of  her 
people,  as  that  which  records  the  story  of  her  conduct  and  self-sac- 
rifice during  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 

Soon  after  the  separation  took  place  between  the  inhabitants  of  the 
old  town  and  the  water-side  people,  which  resulted  in  the  incorporation 
of  Newburyport,  the  struggle  began  between  the  colonies  and  the  Home 
Government  for  control,  and  in  this  struggle  our  fathers  were  among 
the  most  active,  ardent,  and  uncompromising.  The  policy  of  England, 
which  followed  the  conclusion  of  the  French  war  in  1763,  and  which 
was  so  clearly  developed  in  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  was  nowhere 
resisted  with  more  spirit  and  decision  than  here,  and  when  war  broke 
out,  all  classes  of  our  citizens  welcomed  the  contest  with  courage  and 
13 


98  TWO    IIUNDRKD    AXD    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

alacrity,  only  anxious  to  outdo  each  other  in  self-sacrifice  and  devo- 
tion. Capt.  Michael  Hodge,  foremost  among  his  fellow-citizens  for  his. 
energy  and  public  spirit,  read  the  declaration  of  independence  from  a 
window  of  the  meeting-house  in  Market  square,  to  a  crowd  of  peoi)le, 
who  received  it  with  cheers  and  exultation,  their  hearts  ready  for  the 
contest.  Our  fellow  citizen,  Tristram  Dalton,  and  our  first  United 
States  senator,  writes  to  Elbridge  Gerry  on  the  19th  of  July,  1776,  "I 
wish  you  joy  on  the  late  declaration,  *  *  We  are  no  longer  to  be 
amused  with  delusive  prospects.  The  die  is  cast.  *  *  All  is  at 
stake.  The  way  is  made  plain,  we  have  everything  to  hope  from  the 
goodness  of  our  cause.  The  God  of  justice  is  omnipotent."  In  this  he 
spoke  the  feelings  of  his  fellow-citizens  who  spared  no  effort  and  no 
expense  to  prove  their  devotion  and  sincerity.  The  records  of  the  town 
at  this  time  give  abundant  evidence  of  the  zeal  and  patriotism  of  its 
citizens.  In  some  of  the  principal  towns  of  Kew  England  there  were 
disloyalty  and  discord,  but  with  us  it  was  unanimity  and  the  most  cor- 
dial co-operation.  So  united  and  patriotic  were  our  citizens  and  so  in- 
tolerant of  anything  like  treason  or  disaffection,  that  not  a  single  loyal- 
ist could  be  found  within  our  limits,  after  the  death  of  Col.  Daniel 
Farnham,  an  eminent  citizen  and  barrister,  whose  death  took  place  at 
the  commencement  of  the  war.  Bishop  Bass  was  sometimes  suspected 
of  toryism  by  some  of  the  most  ardent  patriots,  who  were  impatient  of 
his  moderation,  but  the  recent  publication  of  letters  in  England  vindi- 
cates his  loyalty  to  his  country  and  his  Newburyport  friends.  It  is  a 
distinction  of  which  we  may  well  be  proud,  that  our  beloved  town  had 
not  a  Tory  within  its  borders.  This  appears  from  the  letters  to  Eng- 
land relating  to  Bishop  Bass.  Our  merchants  distingushed  themselves, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  war,  for  their  boldness  and  success  in  priva- 
teering. Our  government  was  without  a  navy,  and  obliged  to  depend 
on  lettei-s-of-marque  for  the  defence  of  our  shipping  from  the  depreda- 
tions of  English  cruisers.  It  is  said  that  the  honor  of  being  the  first 
commissioned  privateer  in  the  revolution  belongs  to  the  schooner  Han- 
nah of  Beverly.  This  may  be  doubted.  The  Hainiah  of  Beverly  was 
commissioned  3d  of  September,  1775,  but,  according  to  the  Salem  Ga- 
zette, a  Newburyport  schooner  carried  into  Portsmouth,  9th  Septem- 
ber, 1775,  an  English  schooner,  loaded  with  potatoes  and  turnips,  in- 
tended for  the  enemy  at  Boston.  It  would  seem  from  this,  that  New- 
burypoxt  was  ahead  of  Beverly,  and  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  though  I 
have  not  looked  it  up  carefully,  that  Newburyport  deserves  the  honor 
of  taking  the  fii"st  i)rize. 

There  is  a  tradition  here  that  the  first  privateer  was  fitted  out  by 
Nathaniel  Tracy,  and  sailed  in  August,  1775.     Her  name  was  the  Game 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT   OF    NEWBURY. 

Cock,  and  prayers  were  offered  in  the  churches  for  her  safety  and 
cess.  All  through  the  war  Xewburyport  maintained  her  activity  and 
enterprise,  and, — though  her  principal  industry,  ship-building,  was  sus- 
pended,— when  peace  was  established,  it  was  somewhat  stronger  in 
wealth  and  population,  than  when  the  war  began.  She  was  quick  to 
respond  to  the  call  for  volunteers  to  aid  in  the  attempt  by  General 
Sullivan  to  drive  the  English  from  Rhode  Island,  and  in  the  expedi- 
tion to  the  Penobscot,  made  the  magnificent  contribution,  to  the  state, 
of  four  armed  vessels,  mounting  in  all  over  sixty  guns.  This  was  the 
gift  of  nine  of  her  distinguished  merchants. 

But  not  only  has  Newburyport  a  splendid  war  record  during  the  rev- 
olutionary period — for  twenty-five  years  succeeding  the  war  she  en- 
joyed uninteiTupted  growth  and  prosperity.  Wealth  flowed  in  so  fast 
that  the  merchants  were  at  a  loss  how  to  dispose  of  their  surplus.  The 
gi'owth  of  her  commerce  in  the  days  of  her  prosperity  will  compare 
favorably  with  that  of  other  seaports  in  New  England  for  the  same 
period. 

In  1789  her  shipping  amounted  to  11,607  tons;  in  1796,  to  19,752 
tons;  in  1806,  to  29,713  tons. 

With  wealth  came  luxury  and  refinement,  culture  and  style.  It  was 
the  age  of  merchant-princes,  of  fine  houses,  of  gay  parties,  of  elegant 
and  generous  hospitality,  and  of  beautiful  and  acccomplished  women. 
What  a  delightful  society  that  must  have  been  in  the  olden  time,  about 
a  hundred  years  ago.  There  were  Lowell  and  Dalton,  Tracy  and  Jack- 
son, Dr.  Sawyer,  John  Coftin  Jones,  Samuel  Alleyne  Otis,  Kev.  Dr. 
Cary,  Judge  Greenleaf,  Stephen  Hooper,  brother-in-law  to  Dalton, 
nearly  all  graduates  of  Harvard,  all  men  of  means,  and  given  to  hospi- 
tality. Their  style  of  living  was  elegant,  without  ostentation,  graceful, 
generous  and  refined.  Their  good  cheer  was  famous.  I  have  seen  an 
inventory  of  some  of  their  household  effects,  taken  in  1 782,  which  will 
give  an  idea  of  their  habits  of  life.  Tristram  Dalton's  domestic  estab- 
lishment, which  stood  in  its  integrity  till  very  recently,  contained  seven 
horses,  four  carnages,  560  oz.  of  plate,  and  1200  gallons  of  wine.  The 
inventory  of  Jonathan  Jackson,  who  inherited  from  his  grandfather, 
and  received,  the  day  he  was  free,  20,000  golden  guineas,  and  who 
built  the  "Lord  Timothy  Dexter"  house,  so  called,  shows  4  horses,  4 
carriages,  1000  oz.  of  silver,  40  oz.  of  gold,  and  1000  gallons  of  wine. 
The  inventories  of  Thomas  Thomas,  John  Coftin  Jones,  Ste})hen 
Hooper,  and  others,  were  of  a  similar  character.  Dr.  Sawyer  had  two 
uncommonly  handsome  daughtei's,  distinguished  far  and  wide  for  their 
superior  beauty  and  style.  I  have  seen  a  letter,  written  in  1803,  by  a 
daughter  of  an  ex-governor  of  New  Hampshire,  and  the  wife  of  an  ex- 


100  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

member  of  Congress,  describing  parties  which  she  attended  in  Wash- 
ington, during  Jefferson's  administration,  at  the  houses  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  of  the  French  Minister,  in 
which  she  says  that  she  had  seen  nothing  in  Washington  equal  in  style 
and  elegance  to  the  parties  given  by  the  Sawyer  girls,  in  Newburyport. 

There  were  two  sets  of  rich  men,  conspicuous  in  Newburyport,  in 
the  days  of  its  prosperity.  The  first  was  composed  largely  of  men  of 
wealth  and  culture,  who  were  not  merely  merchants,  but  accomplished 
gentlemen,  who  enjoyed  and  appreciated  everything  that  belonged  to  a 
high  civilization.  They  built  fine  residences  at  some  distance  from 
their  wharves  and  warehouses,  and  surrounded  themselves  with  all  the 
comforts  and  refinements  that  wealth  and  education  could  give.  Of 
such,  were  Dalton,  Hooper,  Tracy,  Jackson,  John  Coffin  Jones,  and 
others.  Another  set,  nearly  contemporaneous,  but  a  little  later  and 
more  directly  the  product  of  the  extraordinary  prosperity  that  marks 
the  history  of  this  period,  was  composed  of  successful  traders,  whose 
lives  were  devoted,  exclusively,  to  the  accumulation  of  property,  and 
who  built  fine  houses,  not  where  they  could  command  a  view  of  the 
open  country,  but  upon  the  main  streets,  so  near  to  their  places  of  bus- 
iness that  they  were  never  out  of  sight  of  their  ships  and  ware-houses 
where  their  treasures  were  stored.  Of  such,  were  Bartlett,  Brown, 
Coombs  and  Marquand,  Pettingell,  Johnson,  and  others.  Both  classes 
were  patriotic  and  public  spirited,  but  it  was  the  first  class  that  was 
specially  distinguished  for  the  revolutionary  spirit  which  placed  New- 
buryport among  the  first  for  unselfish  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the 
country. 

I  have  attempted  a  brief  sketch  of  Newburyport  in  the  past,  not 
idealized,  but  substantially  true.  I  will  not  refer  to  the  present.  Today 
we  live  in  the  past.  Let  us  hope,  that  in  the  future  our  sons  will  keep 
alive  the  memory  of  her  enterprise,  energy  and  public  spirit  in  the 
"times  that  tried  men's  souls,"  and,  if  not  blessed  with  the  concurrence 
of  favorable  circumstances,  which  contributed  so  largely  to  the  growth 
of  Newburyport  in  the  past,  prove,  by  their  lives  and  conduct,  and 
fidelity  to  the  interests  of  the  town,  that  they  inherit,  unadulterated, 
the  good  qualities  which  distinguished  their  ancestors  in  the  days  of 
their  success  and  prosperity. 

The  Toast-master  then  announced  the  ninth  regular  toast: 
West  Newbury  : 

"Here  spread  the  fields  that  heap  their  ripened  store 
'Till  the  brown  arms  of  labor  hold  no  more, 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OK    NEWBURY.  101 

Here  glows  the  apple,  with  the  pencilled  streak 
Of  morning  painted  on  its  southern  cheek  ; 
The  pears'  long  necklace,  strung  with  golden  drops, 
Arched  like  the  banyan  o'er  its  pillared  props." 

President  Currier  then  said : 

Toadies  and  Gentlemen: — I  am  sure  you  would  be  pleased  to  hear 
from  several  gentlemen  who  might  with  propriety  be  invited  to  respond 
to  this  toast,  but  I  shall  be  unable,  from  the  lack  of  time,  to  call  upon 
them  all  to  address  you.  I  will,  however,  with  your  permission,  intro- 
duce as  the  first  speaker  a  gentleman  of  acknowledged  ability, — a  skill- 
ful lawyer,  an  eminent  judge, — but  above  all,  an  ardent  and  devout 
lover  of  the  secluded  nooks  and  picturesque  hills  that  give  to  his  sum- 
mer home  its  sylvan  grace  and  beauty.  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to 
you.  Judge  Bradley  of  West  Newbury. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  CHARLES  S.  BRADLEY. 

Mr.  President.,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — When  the  summons  of  the 
committee  to  respond  to  this  call  reached  me  on  Saturday  evening,  the 
first  impulse  was  to  decline,  for  the  reason  suggested  by  the  remark  of 
the  president,  that  West  Newbury  had  many  to  respond  for  her  whom 
I  deemed  more  worthy  of  the  honor  than  myself.  But  as  I  learned 
that  the  same  summons  had  been  already  declined,  I  yielded  to  the  con- 
scription, feeling  that  you  represented  the  place  in  whose  clear  air  I 
drew  my  natal  breath,  and  that  loyalty  was  due  to  the  good  old  town 
that  had  sheltered  the  homestead  where  my  maternal  ancestors  lived 
and  loved,  since  the  forest  oaks  gave  way  to  the  "steep  mile  of  apple 
bloom"  of  which  your  gifted  poet  sings. 

The  toast  speaks  of  West  Newbury  and  its  rural  life  in  the  language 
of  poetry.  As  this  is  an  historic  occasion,  permit  me  to  respond  with 
the  truth  of  history.  That  "the  brown  arms  of  labor"  are  tasked  to 
produce  the  crop  rather  than  to  gather  it.  New  England  farming  is  to 
be  valued  not  for  its  profits,  but  for  its  homes.  A  distinguished  jurist 
in  the  state  from  which  I  come  has  declared,  from  the  bench,  that  matri- 
mony was  intended  for  discipline  as  much  as  delight.  Certainly  that 
other  institution  of  the  God  of  Nature,  farming,  was  intended  for  dis- 
cipline as  well  as  delight.  Let  not  any  happy  young  husband  imagine 
that  matrimony  and  fanning  have  these  good  things  in  the  same  pro- 
portion. Eve  was  given  to  Adam  when  they  were  in  Paradise.  He 
became  a  farmer  and  she  a  fanner's  wife  when  they  were  bidden  to  de- 
part from  the  garden  of  Eden  into  this  world  of  ours.  With  this  dis- 
cipline rightly  used  comes  the  one  thing  of  value  in  the  world,  char- 
acter.    The  one  possession  that  transcends  all  others,  the  home.     West 


102  TWO    HUXDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

Newbury  is  strictly  a  farming  town.  No  railroad  enters  its  borders. 
No  telegraph  wire  carries  its  silent  and  invisible  message  in  the  air. 
The  telephone  is  admitted,  for  it  is  the  child  of  Essex  county.  It  has 
a  few  work  shops,  the  first  in  time  and  character  of  their  kind  in  the 
country.  Their  existence  is  pardoned  for  the  reason  and  because  they 
were  introduced  to  make  ornaments  for  the  head  of  beauty.  The  great 
industry  of  the  county  was  represented  there,  yet  when  the  fire  de- 
stroyed its  buildings,  its  able  owners  transferred  their  business  to  a  more 
congenial  place.  In  this  little  fanning  town  good  and  wise  men  have 
been  nurtured,   and  women, 

"  Saintly  women,  who  made  their  households  happy." 

As  an  example  of  the  growth  this  humble  town  supplies,  permit  me 
to  refer  to  a  single  calling.  From  the  throng  of  the  descendants  of  these 
ancient  towns  who  were  worthy  of  the  honor,  and  equal  to  the  duty  of 
an  orator  of  the  day,  you  chose  one  because  his  calling  was  in  your 
judgment  pre-eminent  over  all  others,  that  of  presiding  over  a  great 
university.  From  the  beginning  there  were  two  colleges  which  shone 
like  guiding  stars  in  our  northern  sky :  Dartmouth,  whose  president 
has  honored  us  today,  and  Bowdoin.  The  name  of  Leonard  Woods, 
President  of  Bowdoin,  needs  no  eulogium.  He  was  born  in  West 
Newbury.  One  of  the  honored  Presidents  of  Harvard,  Felton,  was 
born  and  nurtured  there.  In  his  election,  the  language  of  Homer,  the 
morning  star  of  all  poetry,  the  language  to  which  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity were  entrusted,  was  duly  honored.  A  goodly  company  of  pro- 
fessors, teachers  and  authors,  and  of  men  eminent  in  the  professions,  in 
the  world  of  business  and  in  public  affairs  remain,  but  it  is  allotted  to 
me  to  speak  rather  of  the  aspects  of  nature  in  this  tranquil  town,  early 
set  apart  and  called  West  Newbury  by  the  Fathers.  It  is  composed  of 
a  cluster  of  rounded  hills,  many  with  forms  of  rare  beauty.  There  are 
sweet  fields  among  them  often  rising  to  the  summits,  with  orchards  and 
stately  forest  trees.  There  .are  gardens  there,  and  many  happy  homes. 
Go  with  me  to  those  hill-tops  and  look  upon  scenes  which  were  there 
ages  before  the  white  man  stepped  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Parker, 
and  will  remain  when  centennial  after  centennial  shall  have  rolled  into 
the  past. 

Turn  seaward.  There  are  the  headlands  of  Cape  Ann.  Its  cliffs  are  a 
part  of  our  granite  mountains  come  down  to  the  sea.  It  is  the  last  time 
that  the  mountains  and  ocean  meet  on  our  coast.  It  is  from  such  meet- 
ing that  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  have  their  charms.  South- 
ward all  along  our  coast  are  sand  shores,  save  where  rocks  of  milder 
form  welcome  the  fragrance  of  the  tropics,  borne  by  the  river  in  the 


OK    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  103 

sea  to  the  delicious  atmosphere  of  the  Narraganset.  In  this  cool  sea 
and  invigorating  air  behold  the  cluster  of  Rocks,  Isles  which  should 
bear  the  name  as  they  do  the  monument  of  the  great  discoverer  who 
asked  this  boon.  He  was  one  of  those  men  whom  England  in  that  day 
sent  over  the  world,  of  simple  name,  plain  John  Smith,  and  of  a  nature 
sti-ong  and  tender.  In  the  East  he  could  cleave  the  heads  of  the  fierce 
Turks  dripping  with  blood  for  which  they  had  always  thii-sted.  In  the 
West  the  Indian  maiden,  daughter  of  the  king,  sprang  to  him  to  pro- 
tect him  against  the  hand  of  her  father.  You  perceive  nothing  of  the 
ocean  in  this  vast  expanse  but  its  tranquil  strength.  "  The  hectoring 
words  and  hard  blows  of  the  proud  and  boisterous  ocean  "  which  Judge 
Sewairs  poem  commemorates,  do  not  disturb  our  inland  peace.  Nothing 
is  heard  save  when  in  some  great  storm  the  mighty  seas  thunder  all 
along  the  coast. 

Look  now  upon  the  land.  P^rom  Agamenticus  in  Maine  all  along  the 
purple  peaks  of  New  Hampshire,  to  Wachusett  in  Massachusetts,  the 
horizon  is  filled  with  that  most  beautiful  object  in  nature,  the  blue  sum- 
mit of  the  distant  mountain.  Over  the  lowland  south  at  night,  when 
the  storm  is  coming,  the  lights  from  proud  Boston  shine  in  the  sky.  To 
this  expanse  of  earth  and  heaven  many  a  day  is  given  which,  to  use 
the  words  of  Emerson,  "makes  all  the  pomp  of  Emperors  ridiculous." 
This  air,  coming  from  the  mountains  or  the  sea,  may  sometimes  hardly 
try  the  weak,  but  it  invigorates  the  strong.  There  is  something  of  su- 
preme beauty  in  the  old  town.  The  poet  of  fifty  years  ago  yet  speak- 
eth.  He  prepared  a  poem  for  this  occasion.  As  sent  to  the  printer 
without  his  amending  hand  it  has  been  read  to  us  in  sympathetic  tones 
by  his  kinsman-friend.  The  theme  of  this  last  word  of  his  muse  is 
this  beautiful  and  noble  river,  the  Merrimack.  It  was  admired  above  all 
things  else  by  the  earliest  discoverei's  who  were  aptly  quoted  by  the 
orator  of  the  day.  Talleyrand  and  Louise  Phillippe  once  enjoyed  your 
hospitalities.  With  something  of  French  politeness  to  their  hosts,  with 
more  of  the  artistic  eye  of  the  French  for  landscape,  they  declared  the 
banks  of  the  river  upward,  as  far  as  the  pulses  of  the  sea  are  felt,  to  be 
unsurpassed  in  beauty.  The  monarch  on  the  throne  of  France  vividly 
portrayed,  to  a  distinguished  son  of  West  Newbury,  the  view  from  the 
home  of  the  first  senator  from  Massachusetts,  Tristram  Dalton,  on  the 
banks  of  the  river.  Through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  that  monarch's  life 
the  scenes  remained  like  a  picture  in  his  memory.  The  whole  length 
of  the  little  town  is  on  the  banks  of  that  river.  I  might  easily  say 
more  of  a  river  whose  first  waters  the  old  man  of  the  mountain  pours 
from  his  rocky  urn.  The  whole  southern  slope  of  the  White  Hills 
sends  the  mountain  brooks  to  swell  its  waters.     Each  rapid  and  water- 


104  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

fall  has  become  the  great  city.  It  moves  more  machinery,  has  more  pro- 
ductive power,  ministers  more  to  the  comfort  of  man  than  any  other  river 
in  the  land.  Its  course  is  from  the  mountains  direct  to  Narragansett 
Bay.  But  enamored  of  the  hills  it  turns  backward  among  them  and  is 
returning  to  New  Hampshire,  when  Massachusetts,  once  in  possession, 
threw  her  arms  round  either  shore  and  claimed  the  beautiful  river  all 
as  her  own  until  she  escaped  into  the  sea.  So  that  while  we  are  today 
within  the  latitude  of  New  Hampshii'e  and  have  her  climate,  we  are 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  because  she  so  loved  the 
beautiful  river.  "Massachusetts,  God  bless  her!"  said  the  eloquent 
Southerner  in  Faneuil  Hall.  "Massachusetts,  God  has  blessed  her,"  re- 
sponded an  eloquent  son  of  Newburyport.  How  much  of  the  influence 
of  Massachusetts,  from  the  revolution,  of  which  she  bore  the  brunt,  to 
the  present  time,  may  be  owing  to  the  fact  that  nearly  the  whole 
eastern  coast  of  New  England  is  here?  New  Hampshire  has  but  a  sin- 
gle harbor,  and  that  she  shares  with  Maine.  Maine,  once  a  part  of 
Massachusetts,  looks  southward  upon  the  sea ;  while  the  Bay  State,  not 
content  with  both  of  the  capes  and  all  the  windings  of  its  shores,  goes 
round  upon  the  southern  coast  of  New  England,  and  even  envies  Rhode 
Island  her  priceless  possession,  the  Narragansett.  Its  chief  island  the 
French  desii*ed  in  return  for  their  aid  in  our  Revolution — too  priceless 
it  was  for  any  gratitude  to  give.  And  yet  Massachusetts,  within  pres- 
ent memories,  filed  her  process  in  the  Supreme  court  of  the  United 
States,  and  claimed  that  all  the  Eastern  shore  of  that  bay  and  its 
adjacent  waters  were  her  own.  The  Attorney-General  of  the  State, 
then  and  now  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Essex  county,  and  an  ex-Gov- 
ernor and  Attorney-General  of  the  State,  whose  home  was  in  that  city 
by  the  sea  from  which  the  distinguished  and  eloquent  gentlemen  came 
today  with  his  tribute  of  the  heart  to  the  daughters  of  Newburyport, 
conducted  the  controversy  for  Massachusetts.  Its  conduct  of  course 
was  honorable  and  able.  It  ended  in  an  exchange  of  territory  pre- 
viously occupied  by  each  state,  which  a  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
based  upon  consent,  made  final.  And  in  this  termination,  Massachu- 
setts acted  with  generous  justice;  and  Rhode  Island  will  be  undisturbed 
in  her  rightful  possessions  forever.  Excuse  my  wanderings,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent. He  who  does  not  love  the  home  of  his  adoption  cannot  rightly 
love  the  home  of  his  fathers. 

One  word  in  conclusion,  suggested  by  something  my  friend  Mr.  Cross 
said.  It  illustrates  the  changed  condition  of  the  times.  And  that  the 
present,  in  some  respect,  at  least,  is  an  improvement  upon  the  past.  The 
Great  and  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  it  seems,  once  passed  a  resolve 
urging  the  good  people  of  this  ancient  town  to  stamp  out  the  Anabap- 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT   OF    NEWBURY.  105 

tists.  My  great  grandfather  was  one  of  those  Anabaptists, — Baptists 
they  called  themselves.  He  preached  in  this  and  the  adjacent  towns, 
and  was  not  altogether  unknown  in  religious  or  political  controversy, 
at  Bunker  Hill  and  Saratoga,  as  well  as  in  the  sharper  contests  at 
home.  And  yet  my  welcome  here  is  none  the  less,  even  from  the  good 
doctor  of  the  Standing  Order  by  whose  direction  I  speak.  May  I  also 
add  that  he  was  the  first,  I  believe,  to  consecrate  the  waters  of  our  noble 
river,  in  one  form  of  Christian  baptism.  Those  who  have  seen  be- 
lievers descend  from  its  banks  into  its  watei's  to  be  buried  in  baptism, 
and  to  rise  to  a  new  life,  while  hymns  of  prayer  and  praise  ascend  from 
sympathetic  hearts  into  the  heavens,  have  witnessed  one  of  the  most 
simple  and  impressive  religious  ceremonies  in  the  world. 

At  the  close  of  Judge  Bradley's  address,  President  Currier  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — I  invite  you  now  to  listen  to  a  brief  address 
from  another  well  known  citizen  of  West  Newbury,  who  is  thoroughly 
familiar  with  her  history  and  can,  undoubtedly,  recall  to  your  remem- 
brance the  men  who  in  the  past  or  present  have  been  identified  with 
her  material  prosperity  and  intellectual  life,  or  who  have  won  for  them- 
selves honor  and  distinction  elsewhere.  Pemiit  me  to  introduce  to  you 
E.  Moody  Boynton,  Esq.,  of  West  Newbury. 

ADDRESS  OF  E.  MOODY  BOYNTON,  ESQ. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — I  am  proud  that  my  parents 
and  their  fathers  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  were  natives  of  Old 
Newbury ;  that  they  were  honest  and  useful  people,  and  represented 
the  Puritan  faith  which  my  ancestor,  Rev.  William  Moody,  and  the  son 
of  Sir  Matthew  Boynton,  brought  here  with  them  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago.  Not  the  warlike  deeds  of  the  Puritans  nor  their  intel- 
lectual force  that  rose  like  a  meteor  and  abolished  thrones  of  Europe  is 
alone  our  boast  of  ancestry,  but  their  fidelity  to  liberty  and  equality, 
the  Christian  civilization  they  founded  and  the  character  they  impressed 
on  our  nation  while  breaking  fetters  for  the  world.  Men  may  dispute 
about  the  motives  and  patriotism  of  Caesar  or  a  Napoleon,  but  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Puritans'  mental  and  moral  greatness  remains  unques- 
tioned among  the  twenty  millions  of  their  descendants.  Since  their 
advent  more  has  been  added  to  liberty,  happiness,  civilization,  than  all 
previous  history  of  man.  Their  work  is  their  highest  eulogy.  West 
Newbury,  where  I  live,  was  first  occupied  by  Caleb  Moody  in  1636,  by 
John  Emery  in  1640.  While  the  ancestors  of  Moses  Brown,  of  Josiah 
Bartlett,  of  Ben:  Perley  Poore,  of  the  Ordways,  Johnsons,  Littles, 
Smiths,  Baileys,  Cokers,  Rogerses,  Fultons,  Morees,  Longfellows,  and 
14 


106  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

Others  followed  soon  after,  but  not  until  1686  was  the  territory  divided 
and  sold.  The  second  church  of  Newbury  was  organized  at  this  time, 
and  in  1703  removed  to  Pipe-stave  hill,  adjoining  my  residence.  The 
parsonage  house  was  erected  one  hundred  and  eighty  years  ago,  and 
its  barn  was  made  from  the  beams  of  the  first  church  built  in  the  city 
of  Newburyport.  How  beautifully  and  appropriately  our  schools  cele- 
brate this  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  a  people  where  free 
schools  and  free  government  had  birth.  Recalling  the  patriotism, 
sacrifices  and  character  of  our  ancestors  is  a  patriotic  duty.  It  is  time 
in  our  nation's  wealth  and  luxury  to  reopen  and  drink  from  the  foim- 
tains  of  its  youth ;  and  he  who  sneers  at  the  Puritans,  might  as  well 
muzzle  the  cannon  that  thunders  the  annual  return  of  Independence 
day ;  patriotism  still  lives.  Our  Parsons,  Garrison,  Phillips,  Whittier, 
abolished  slavery.  The  first  hundred  of  the  forlorn  hope  that  crossed 
Fredericksburg  in  the  face  of  a  hundred  thousand  hostile  guns  were 
sons  of  Newbury  in  the  nineteenth  regiment,  for  they  were  descended 
from  those  who  a  hundred  years  before  marched  to  Salem  bridge,  to 
Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill,  from  those  who  manned  the  ships  in  both 
wars  that  swept  a  thousand  British  prizes  on  the  sea.  Gov.  Josiah 
Bartlett,  the  first  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  born 
on  the  Amesbury  shore,  opposite  West  Newbury.  Samuel  Bartlett,  his 
grandfather,  associated  with  Caleb  Moody  in  resistance  to  Gov.  Andros, 
were  equally  citizens  of  West  Newbury.  The  ancestors  of  Daniel 
Webster  were  the  children  of  Mrs.  John  Emery,  wife  of  our  John 
Emery,  the  great  public  benefactor.  Mrs.  Gen.  Peabody,  who  made 
such  a  noble  impress  upon  the  great  banker,  George  Peabody,  when  a 
child  in  her  household,  was  a  native  of  West  Newbury,  and  her  rela- 
tives are  here  today.  Felton,  the  president  of  Harvard  University,  was 
the  son  of  onr  village  blacksmith.  Bailey,  the  mathematician  and 
author  and  founder  of  the  first  ladies'  high  school  in  America,  was  a 
native  of  West  Newbury.  Time  fails  me  to  mention  our  heroes  of  the 
French  and  Indian  wars  that  for  a  hundred  years  made  this  their  battle- 
line.  The  arsenal  and  signal  station  were  on  the  hill  where  I  live ;  the 
training  field  was  consecrated  by  the  footsteps  of  men  who  gave  their 
blood  to  redeem  a  continent.  With  us  every  step  is  history,  every  old 
house  a  shrine.  West  Newbury  has  not  in  her  quarter  thousand  years 
of  history  had  one  murder  in  her  limits.  Today  we  look  upon  a  city 
of  beauty  where  there  was  silence,  while  from  orchard-crowned  hills  a 
wondrous  prospect  of  sea  and  river  and  mountains  unfold  more  beauti- 
ful to  us  than  aught  but  ])aradise.  We  see  our  fathers  like  those  moun- 
tains today  free  from  she  mist  that  were  hung  with  rainbows ;  their 


OP    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  107 

hope  has  become  fruition.     Their  virtues,  like  the  mountains,  are  eternal 
and  lift  us  today  to  their  higher  claims. 

The  Toast-master  proposed  for  the  tenth  regular  toast : 

The  Patriot  Soldiers  of  all  the  Newburys  : 

From  the  Pequot  war  of  1657  to  the  late  unpleasantness.  Prompt  at  the  call, 
valiant  in  fight,  faithful  to  the  end,  quick  to  forgive. 

President  Currier,  introducing  the  next  speaker,  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — Among  those  who  have  come  from  a  dis- 
tance to  unite  with  us  in  these  anniversary  exercises  there  is  one  who 
served  in  the  ranks,  as  a  volunteer,  dxiring  the  late  civil  war,  and  is  now 
a  commissioned  officer  in  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States.  His 
recent  struggle  and  conflict  with  an  Arctic  winter  has  won  for  him  an 
honored  place  among  the  iyustrious  heroes  of  the  age.  I  shall  now  call 
upon  him  to  respond  to  the  sentiment  that  has  just  been  proposed,  for 
I  know  you  will  be  pleased  to  see  and  hear  from  Lieut.  Greely  of 
Washington,  D.  C. 

ADDRESS  OF  LIEUT.  A.  W.  GREELY. 

3Ir.  President^  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — I  feel  that  this  is  not  the 
time  to  wear  away  your  time  with  a  speech.  We  are  all  tired.  I  am, 
at  least,  after  my  long  ride  from  Washington.  But  as  I  am  called  upon 
I  will  say  a  few  words,  and  I  will  begin  by  saying  that  there  are  few 
here  who  realize  the  date  of  the  Pequot  war.  Statistics  show  us  that 
the  history  of  Newbury  goes  back  beyond  the  commencement  of  Par- 
liamentary laws  in  Old  England.  When  Newbury  was  founded  the 
armies  which  at  Naseby,  Marston  Moor,  and  Newbury,  established  Par- 
liamentary government  in  England  were  as  yet  unformed,  but  as  farm- 
ers and  yeomen  tilled  the  fields  of  England.  You  have  heard  today 
how  the  Puritan  soldiers  went  forth,  and  how  they  discussed  the  ques- 
tions of  the  day. 

The  speaker  of  the  day  has  told  you  how  by  the  aid  of  Newbury's 
sons  Fortress  Louisburg  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  How,  later, 
attempts  were  made  to  scale  the  walls  of  Quebec,  and  how  still  later, 
the  men  of  Newbury  acquitted  themselves  with  credit.  As  years  rolled 
on,  as  warfai-es  with  the  old  country  sprung  up,  Newbury  men  were 
there;  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution,  and  later  in  the  war  of  1812,  and 
again  in  1846,  and  besides  these  were  the  Everglades  and  the  Rebel- 
lion. In  all  these  encounters  Newbury's  sons  took  an  honorable  part. 
I  call  it  the  Rebellion,  although  one  of  the  speakers  has  referred  to  it 
as  "the  late  unpleasantness."  Don't  mince  words.  It  was  a  rebellion, 
and  so  let  us  call  it,  and  so  I  refer  to  it  as  the  rebellion,  not  in  any  sense 
of  bitterness  or  desire  to  fight  those  battles  over  again.     It  was  a  re- 


108  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIITIETH    ANNIVERSAKV 

bellion,  doti't  mince  words  about  it.  The  men  who  fought  us  were 
brave,  generous,  noble.  They  rebelled,  so  call  it  what  it  was,  a  rebel- 
lion, for  it  was  nothing  else. 

Now  what  was  it  that  inspired  the  men  of  Newbury?  What  caused 
them  to  spill  their  blood  like  water  on  the  rocky  walls  of  Louisburg 
and  the  heights  of  Chepultepec  ?  What,  I  ask,  from  the  Everglades  of 
Florida  westward  to  the  plains  of.  Wyoming ;  what  through  the  streets 
of  Baltimore?  I  think  I  can  tell  you.  To  my  mind  it  is  the  sense  of 
duty  which  inspired  these  men.  Without  that  sense  of  duty  the  sol- 
diers of  Newbury  never  would  have  marched,  and  if  they  were  com- 
pelled to  march  they  would  have  fought  to  lose  the  battle. 

Their  actions  in  regard  to  the  war  of  1812  are  no  credit  to  Newbury. 
There  was  no  sense  of  duty  in  fighting  for  a  cause  which  was  repellant 
to  them.  Brave  men  are  from  all  nations.  They  spring  from  no  par- 
ticular soil.  I  shall  not  speak  of  the  men  of  Newbury  as  brave  men. 
To  do  so  would  be  no  compliment.  They  are  brave,  as  all  other  men, 
but  something  more  may  be  said,  which  is  shown  by  the  statistics  of 
the  war.  Where  one  man  is  pierced  by  the  bullet  two  fall  by  disease. 
Now  as  we  look  over  the  records  we  see  that  where  two  men  in  this 
war  perished  by  disease  but  one  died  by  the  bullet.  But  we  who  look 
closer  find  that  instead  of  68  men  perishing  by  disease  and  32  by  the 
bullet  and  swoi'd  and  prison,  that  52  men  from  Massachusetts  died  by 
the  sword  and  bullet  and  prison,  and  48  perished  by  disease.  That 
speaks  for  the  character  of  the  New  England  man ;  that  speaks  for  the 
Puritan,  and  when  you  ask  of  what  stamp  and  where  is  to  be  seen  the 
representative  soldier  of  Newbury,  I  refer  you  to  that  great  metropolis 
where  has  been  set  up  for  the  centuries  and  ages  to  come  a  beautiful 
statue  of  one  of  the  Puritans,  a  soldier  with  gun  and  bible,  who  fought 
always  with  a  sense  of  duty.  One  of  the  eloquent  speakers  has  said 
that  the  men  of  Newbury  were  lion-hearted.  So  I  think  and  take 
them  to  be.  So  you  will  agree  that  they  were.  They  were  men  like 
those  who  were  witli  Arnold,  that  could  not  be  tempted,  and  preferred 
to  wear  the  rags  of  the  continental  soldiery  rather  than  accept  the 
enemy's  offers.  It  may  be  that  that  is  indicative  of  New  England 
character.  As  a  son  of  Newbury  I  feel  that  perhaps  it  may  not  be  the 
place  for  me  to  speak  of  some  defects  in  New  England  character — it  is 
that  sense  of  duty  pushed  to  excess.  It  is  my  notion  that  we  should 
take  a  lesson  from  nature,  and  if  we  follow  her  we  will  profit  by  it. 
One  of  the  eloquent  speakers  before  me  has  refeired  to  the  granite 
which  from  the  White  Hills  comes  down  to  meet  the  Atlantic,  and  has 
described  the  beauty  of  the  field,  forest  and  grass  which  overlays  and 
beautifies  the  granite.     So  let  it  be  understood  that  this  feeling  of  duty 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  109 

should  be  made  beautiful  and  graceful  rather  than  stern  and  cold. 
Perhaps,  however,  I  should  not  say  this.  I  think  perhaps  to  some  of 
you  who  stand  here  it  may  be  a  lesson  in  training  the  youthful  mind  to 
feel  that  our  sense  of  duty  should  not  overrule  eveiything.  I  thank 
you  very  much  for  your  kind  attention. 

The  Toast-master  announced  as  the  eleventh  regular  toast : 
The  Okatob  of  the  Day,  and  the  vbnekable  institution  oveb  which  he  presides: 

May  they  long  prosper  together. 

President  Currier  then  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — There  are,  doubtless,  many  in  this  audience 
w^ho  have  listened  to  the  eloquent  historical  address  delivered  at  City 
Hall  this  morning,  and  who  have  waited  long  and  patiently  for  the 
privilege  of  hearing  again  from  the  orator  of  the  day.  I  therefore,  in 
compliance  with  your  wishes  and  without  fuither  delay,  will  present  to 
you  President  Bartlett  of  Dartmouth  College. 

ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL  C.  BARTLETT,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

3fr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — I  shall  not  forget  that  I 
have  already  had  my  share  of  your  time  and  your  patience  today,  and 
all  that  I  have  to  say  in  addition  is  simply  to  give  you  a  sentiment, 
wnth  a  word  or  two  of  introduction.  J'rom  what  you  have  heard  here 
this  afternoon,  you  see  clearly  that  in  an  historical  address  of  Old  New- 
bury, the  difficulty  was  not  what  to  include  but  what  to  exclude.  I 
gave  you  the  history,  and  now  want  to  give  you  a  bit  of  prophecy,  that 
I  found  among  the  documents  of  the  past.  Judge  Samuel  Sewell,  born 
seventeen  years  after  the  settlement  of  Old  Newbury,  wrote  in  his  ma- 
turity these  lines : 

"  As  long  as  Plum  Island  shall  faithfully  keep  the  commanded  post,  notwith- 
standing the  hectoring  words  and  hard  blows  of  the  proud  and  boisterous  ocean ; 
as  long  as  any  salmon  or  sturgeon  shall  swim  in  the  streams  of  Merrimack ; 
*  *  *  as  long  as  any  sheep  shall  walk  upon  Old  Town  hills,  and  shall 
thence  pleasantly  look  down  upon  the  River  Parker  and  the  fruitful  marshes  lying 
beneath ;  as  long  as  any  free  and  harmless  doves  shall  find  a  white  oak  or  other 
tree  within  the  township,  to  perch  or  feed,  or  build  a  careless  nest  upon,  and 
shall  voluntarily  present  themselves  to  perform  the  office  of  gleaners  after  the 
barley  harvest ;  *        *        *         gQ  \ou^g  shall  Christians  be  bom  there  and 

being  first  made  meet  shall  from  thence  be  translated  to  be  made  partakers  of 
the  saints  in  light." 

Now,  dams  and  water-wheels  have  effectually  driven  out  salmon  and 
sturgeon  from  the  3Ien-imack ;  in  a  recent  visit  to  Parker  river  I  saw 
no  sheep  looking  pleasantly  down  from  OldtowMi  Hill ;  and  though  my 
friend,  Mr.  Little,  showed  me  on  his  farm  a  white  oak,  supposed  to  be 
two  or  three  hundred  years  old,  I  saw  no  free  and  harmless  doves  build- 


110  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

ing  their  careless  nests  upon  it,  and  no  barley  harvest  for  them  to 
glean :  while  even  Plum  Island  has  so  far  yielded  to  the  hard  blows  of 
the  boisterous  ocean  that  the  "Commanded  Post,"  if  it  be  the  site  of 
the  ancient  fortress,  is  now  on  the  Salisbury  side.  But  good  Christians, 
and  a  goodly  number  of  them  too,  continue  to  be  born  here  still.  My 
sentiment  is  therefore — The  old  township  of  Newbury,  that  lives  in 
her  history,  and  outlives  her  prophecy. 

The  Toastmaster  then  offered  the  twelfth  regular  toast: 

Benjamin  Apthoep  Gould  : 

From  his  life  of  fifty  years  among  the  stars,  he  returns  to  his  native  land  him- 
self a  star  of  magnitude. 

President  Currier  said : 

lAidies  and  Gentlemen : — I  will  improve  this  opportunity  to  intro- 
duce to  you  a  gentleman  who  for  many  years  has  labored  arduously  in 
his  profession,  in  a  foreign  land,  and  who  comes  back  to  us  crowned 
with  honors.  I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  the  emi- 
nent astronomer,  Benjamin  Apthrop  Gould  of  Boston. 

ADDRESS  OF  BENJAMIN  A.  GOULD,  Ph.  D. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  thank  you  most  sincerely 
for  this  very  kind  welcome,  and  am  most  glad  of  the  opportunity  to 
express  my  gratitude  for  the  agreeable  invitation  that  has  brought  me 
hither.  Nothing  could  have  induced  me  to  decline  it.  Yet,  now  that 
you  call  on  me  to  speak,  I  must  beg  you  to  remember  that  my  avoca- 
tions have  not  been  such  as  to  give  that  power  of  ready  utterance 
which  one  craves  at  such  a  moment. 

There  are  pursuits  in  life,  such  as  those  of  the  pulpit  or  the  bar, 
which  confer  fluency  in  speech  and  a  ready  command  of  ideas  even 
while  facing  a  large  assemblage.  For  others,  such  for  instance  as  as- 
tronomy, it  cannot  be  claimed  that  they  tend  in  such  direction.  Whether 
they  educate  the  eye  or  not,  they  certainly  do  not  cultivate  the  tongue. 
Still,  under  no  circumstances  could  I  fail  to  respond  with  all  my  heart 
when  the  subject  is  Newbury  port  and  her  vicinity. 

It  is  not  as  a  stranger  that  I  come,  but  as  an  adopted  child,  claiming 
to  be  received  as  such.  To  Newburyport  my  first  remembrances  of 
childhood  go  back ;  of  those  years  whose  memories  are  not  only  the 
earliest,  but  the  most  enduring  and  most  vivid.  I  still  see  the  vener- 
able grandsire  who  through  his  long  life  bore  upon  his  cheek  the  scar 
of  Lexington ;  the  aunt,  whose  watchful  tenderness  was  almost  as  that 
of  a  mother;  the  first  school-room  that  my  feet  ever  trod;  and  the 
voices  of  those  early  days  still  echo  to  my  ear. 

Never  shall  I  lose  the  sound  of  that  deep,  moaning  murmur  which 


OF    THE    SETTI.EMEKT    OF   XEWBURY.  Ill 

nightly  lulled  me  to  sleep,  and  which  they  told  me  was  the  dashing  of 
the  surf  upon  the  bar ;  nor  of  the  winding  of  the  driver's  horn  at  mid- 
night, waking  the  slumberers  as  the  mail-coach  rattled  down  State 
street,  and  rumbled  across  the  wooden  bridge.  Even  now,  after  more 
than  half  a  century,  I  thrill  anew,  in  recalling  the  ancient  apprehen- 
sions at  the  sight  of  the  painted  statues  in  Lord  Timothy  Dexter's 
garden;  and  when  remembering  the  monument  to  the  memory  of 
Whitefield,  there  occurs  yet  more  vividly  that  awful  dread  of  his  bones 
mouldering  beneath  the  pulpit,  which  the  child  seated  in  the  front  pew 
was  unable  to  banish  for  a  single  moment  fi'om  his  consciousness. 

How  well  memory  recalls  that  stentorian  voice  from  the  double- 
towered  meeting-house  two  streets  away;  the  sonorous  resonance  of 
which  enabled  us  to  profit  by  the  Sunday  afternoon's  discourse  as  we 
sat  at  the  open  window  in  Charter  street.  I  had  heard  something  of 
Paradise  Lost,  and  supposed  the  Milton  whose  voice  was  thundering  in 
my  ears  to  be  none  other  than  its  immortal  author.  Perhaps  this  was 
not  remarkable,  for  certainly  the  doctrine  tended  in  that  direction ! 
Then  there  reappears  the  venerable  form  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dana  and  the 
stately  presence  of  our  own  minister,  Mr.  Proudfit.  How  it  horrified 
me  once  to  hear  his  spouse  address  him  with  absolute  familiarity  as 
"John!"  And  not  the  least,  among  these  memories,  is  that  of  the 
spiritual  peril  said  to  lurk  upon  the  north  side  of  Pleasant  street,  where 
Dr.  Andrews  ministered. 

So  too  in  later  years  I  have  felt  almost  entitled  to  citizenship  through 
my  esteemed  and  near  friends  among  you,  partly  bequeathed  me,  and 
partly  secured  through  special  favor.  Not  to  mention  the  living, — I 
claim,  sir,  that  there  can  be  few  who  cherish  a  more  cordial  respect  for 
the  memory  of  that  venerable  man.  Dr.  Withington,  whose  heart  was 
so  much  larger  than  his  creed :  or  of  the  brilliant  and  learned  states- 
man, Caleb  Cushing,  who  amid  overwhelming  official  and  professional 
duties  found  time  to  defend  me  and  my  cause,  when  feebly  and  almost 
hopelessly  struggling  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  science  against  the 
tremendous  opposition  of  the  money-power  in  an  unintellectual  com- 
munity ;  or  to  that  man  of  wondrous  enterprise,  William  Wheelwright, 
for  whose  aid  in  two  hemispheres  I  owe  debts  of  gratitude.  Hither, 
too,  has  always  been  my  annual  pilgrimage,  when  at  home,  to  gather 
the  trailing  arbutus  in  April  and  the  mountain  laurel  in  June.  But  I 
have  no  right  to  consume  your  time  with  personal  reminiscences. 

How  very  large  has  been  the  quota  which  Newbury  has  furnished  to 
the  empire  of  the  West.  Just  as  New  England  is  the  mother  of  Ohio 
and  Western  New  York,  and  through  them  of  still  remoter  states — en- 
titled to  claim  a  fair  share  of  their  achievements  and  renown — so  has 


112  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

Old  Newbury  contributed  in  a  large  degree  to  the  position  which  New 
England  has  won  for  herself  in  history.  I  will  not  presume  to  speak, 
in  this  presence,  of  the  early  history  of  Newbury,  but  I  have  been  as- 
tonished today,  in  looking  back  to  those  comparatively  recent  times 
thi'ough  which  my  own  memory  reaches,  to  see  how  great  has  been  the 
influence  that  has  been  exerted  by  this  one  town  and  how  many  are  the 
intellectual  associations  connected  with  her. 

Here  it  was  that  Franklin,  more  than  130  years  ago,  when  the  spire 
of  the  first  church  was  shattered  by  a  stroke  of  lightning,  proved  by 
his  inspection  that  the  discharge  had  passed  through  twenty  feet  of  a 
small  wire  no  bigger  than  a  knitting  needle  and  that  had  been  com- 
pletely vaporized  by  the  passage. 

Here  Perkins  made  many  of  his  wonderful  inventions — the  steam 
gun,  derided  then,  but  since  developed  into  the  Gatling  of  today — the 
stereotype  bank  note  with  its  microscopic  inscriptions,  and  the  like. 

From  here  came  the  classic  Dr.  Popkin,  once  a  very  pillar  of  our 
university,  whose  quaint  form  I  remember  in  the  streets  and  walks  of 
Cambridge  when  I  first  knew  them ;  the  Greenleaf,  through  whom  two 
generations  of  New  Englanders  were  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of 
numbers ;  and  that  other  one  whom  it  was  my  privilege  to  know  when, 
as  colleague  of  Judge  Story,  he  was  helping  to  train  so  vast  a  propor- 
tion of  those  who  have  since  that  time  guided  the  jurisdiction  of  our 
country. 

What  Bostonian  fails  to  claim  with  pride  the  Newbury  names  of 
Parsons,  Jackson,  Lowell,  and  Gary?  Longfellow  is  yours,  with  only 
one  remove.  The  gifted,  brilliant,  sterling  family  of  Feltons,  conspic- 
uous alike  in  classic  culture,  and  in  the  application  of  science  to  the 
arts  of  life,  would  richly  adorn  the  annals  of  whatever  town  might  be 
their  birthplace.  And  I  bring  you  witness  that  the  whole  continent  of 
South  America  honors  the  name  of  William  Wheelwright.  To  him 
that  division  of  the  world  owes  its  first  steamship,  its  first  railroad, 
first  gas  light,'  and  first  electric  telegraph.  And  he  is  still  cited  as  a 
conspicuous  example  of  intelligent  enterprise,  as  well  as  of  uprightness 
and  integrity,  amid  singularly  adverse  influences. 

I  may  not  longer  detain  you,  Mr.  President  and  fellow  townsmen, 
but  may  be  forgiven  if  before  taking  my  seat,  I  recall  for  our  common 
benefit  the  great  moral  of  this  occasion.  This  can  scarcely  be  done 
better  than  by  citing  anew  the  pithy  lines  with  the  quotation  of  which 
the  son  of  Newburyport  who  served  as  your  orator  a  few  years  ago, 
and  whom  we  all  rejoice  to  greet  again  today,  closed  his  interesting 
anniversary  address: 

"They  who  on  glorious  ancestry  enlarge, 

-    Produce  their  debt,  instead  of  their  discharge." 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  113 

The  Toastraaster  then  read  the  thirteenth  regular  toast : 
The  Good  Old  Newbury  Families  : 

The  houses  they  built  show  us  what  they  were, — solid,  lofty,  spacious,  genuine. 
Abounding  in  utilities,  but  not  wanting  in  ornament ;  made  to  serve,  to  last,  and 
to  adorn. 

President  Currier  then  made  the  following  announcement : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — I  shall  call  upon  a  descendant  of  one  of 
the  old  Newbury  families  to  respond  to  this  toast,  and  I  know  you  will 
welcome  him  as  a  worthy  representative  of  the  men  who  owned  and 
occupied  the  spacious  houses,  and  who  gave  dignity  and  refinement  to 
the  social  life  of  Newbury,  a  century  ago.  It  affords  me  great  pleasure 
to  be  able  to  introduce  to  you,  on  this  occasion,  Edward  Atkinson,  Esq., 
of  Boston. 

ADDRESS  OF  EDWARD  ATKINSON,  ESQ. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — When  I  received  a  note, 
yesterday,  telling  me  that  I  was  to  respond  to  this  sentiment,  I  felt 
rather  worried.  But  I  recalled  the  advice  of  the  clergyman  to  a  younger 
brother  who  had  difficulty  in  preparing  his  sermon.  "  Oh,"  said  the 
older  one,  "leave  it  as  Dr.  So  and  So  does,  until  Saturday  afternoon, 
and  then  make  nothing  of  it."  (Laughter.)  Perhaps  the  best  speech 
I  could  make  to  you  would  be  to  tell  you  a  story  to  enliven  the  occa- 
sion. I  went  some  time  ago  into  an  Essex  county  political  meeting  to 
make  a  financial  speech,  which  as  you  know  is  a  weary  business  for 
listeners,  and  a  gentleman  who  had  been  dining  out  and  had  taken  a 
little  too  much  champagne,  followed  me.  Next  day  an  old  friend  met 
me  and  said,  "That  was  a  funny  meeting  you  had  in  Salem  yesterday." 
"  How  was  that  ? "  I  asked.  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  an  old  lady  who  at- 
tended said  'twas  a  funny  affair.  The  first  speaker  was  very  dry  and 
the  second  one  had  been."  (Laughter.)  Now,  if  I  were  to  address 
you  at  any  length  you  might  soon  discover  that  I  was  the  speaker  who 
was  very  dry  on  that  occasion,  and  you  might  even  wish  that  the  one 
who  had  been  were  in  my  place.  At  this  late  hour  I  therefore  think  it 
wisest  to  adopt  the  advice  of  the  old  clergyman,  in  a  little  different 
way  from  what  he  intended,  and  to  make  nothing  of  the  speech  which 
I  might  have  given  you. 

The  Toastmaster  proposed  for  the  fourteenth  regular  toast: 

John  Gkkenleaf  Whittier  :  The  Poet  of  Liberty  and  Nature  : 
"  All  honor  and  praise  to  the  right-hearted  bard. 
Who  was  true  to  The  Voice  when  such  service  was  hard. 
Who  himself  was  so  free  he  dared  sing  for  the  slave 
When  to  look  but  a  protest  in  silence  was  brave ; 
All  honor  and  praise  to  the  women  and  men 
Who  spoke  out  for  the  dumb  and  the  down-trodden  then." 
15 


114  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

President  Currier  then  announced  that  a  letter,  written  for  this  occa- 
sion, by  Mr.  Whittier,  would  be  read  by  Nathan  N.  Withington,  Esq., 
of  Newburyport. 

LETTER  FROM  JOHN  G.  WHITTIER. 

Amesbuky,  6Tn  Month,  1885. 
Samuel  J.  Spalding,  D.  D. 

My  Bear  Fr'end:—!  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  hope  to  be  with  you  on  the  two 
hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Old  Newbury.  Although  I 
can  hardly  call  myself  a  son  of  the  ancient  town,  my  grandmother,  Sarah  Green- 
leaf,  of  blessed  memory,  was  its  daughter,  and  I  may  therefore  claim  to  be  its 
grandson.  Its  genial  and  learned  historian,  Joshua  Coffin,  was  my  first  school 
teacher,  and  all  my  life  I  have  lived  in  sight  of  its  green  hills  and  in  hearing  of  its 
Sabbath  bells.  Its  wealth  of  natural  beauty  has  not  been  left  unsung  by  its  own 
poets,  Hannah  F.  Gould,  Mrs.  Hopkins,  George  Lunt,  and  Edward  A.  Washburn, 
while  Harriet  Prescott  Spoiford's  "Plum  Island  Sound"  is  as  sweet  and  musical 
as  Tennyson's  "  Brook."  Its  history  and  legends  are  familiar  to  me.  I  seem  to 
have  known  all  its  old  worthies,  whose  descendants  have  helped  to  people  a  con- 
tinent and  who  have  carried  the  name  and  memories  of  their  birth-place  to  the 
Mexican  Gulf  and  across  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  They 
were  the  best  and  selectest  of  Puritanism,  brave,  honest,  God-fearing  men  and 
women ;  and  if  their  creed  in  the  lapse  of  time  has  lost  something  of  its  vigor, 
the  influence  of  their  ethical  righteousness  still  endures.  The  prophecy  of  Samuel 
Sewall  that  Christians  should  be  found  in  Newbury  so  long  as  pigeons  shall  roost 
on  its  oaks  and  Indian  corn  grow  in  Oldtown  fields,  remains  still  true,  and  we 
trust  will  always  remain  so.  Yet,  as  of  old,  the  evil  personage  sometimes  intrudes 
himself  into  company  loo  good  for  him.  It  was  said  in  the  witchcraft  trials  of 
1692  that  Satan  baptized  his  converts  at  Newbury  Falls,  the  scene,  probably,  of 
one  of  Hawthorne's  weird  "Twice  Told  Tales,"  and  there  is  a  tradition  that  in 
the  midst  of  a  heated  controversy  between  one  of  Newbury's  painful  ministers  and 
his  deacon,  who  (anticipating  Garrison  by  a  century)  ventured  to  doubt  the  pro- 
priety of  clerical  slaveholding,  the  adversary  made  his  appearance  in  the  shape  of 
a  black  giant  stalking  through  Byfield.  It  was  never,  I  believe,  definitely  settled 
whether  he  was  drawn  there  by  the  minister's  zeal  in  defence  of  slavery  or  the 
deacon's  irreverent  denial  of  the  minister's  right  and  duty  to  curse  Canaan  in  the 
person  of  his  negro. 

Old  Newbury  has  sometimes  been  spoken  of  as  ultra-conservative  and  hostile  to 
new  ideas  and  progress,  but  this  is  not  warranted  by  its  history.  More  than  two 
centuries  ago,  when  Major  Pike,  just  across  the  river,  stood  up  and  denounced  in 
open  town  meeting  the  law  against  freedom  of  conscience  and  worship,  and  was 
in  consequence  fined  and  outlawed,  some  of  Newbury's  best  citizens  stood  bravely 
by  him.  The  town  took  no  part  in  the  witchcraft  horror  and  got  none  of  its  old 
women  and  town  charges  hanged  for  witches.  "Goody"  Morse  had  the  spirit 
rappings  in  her  house  two  hundred  years  earlier  than  the  Fo.x  girls  did,  and  some- 
what later  a  Newbury  minister  in  wig  and  knee  buckles  rode,  Bible  in  hand,  over 
to  Hampton  to  lay  a  ghost  who  had  materialized  himself  and  was  stamping  up 
and  down  stairs  in  liis  military  boots. 

Newbury's  ingenious  citizen,  Jacob  Perkins,  in  drawing  out  diseases  with  his 
metallic  tractors,  was  quite  as  successful  as  modern  "faith  and  mind"  doctors. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OK    NEWBURY.  115 

The  Quakers,  whipped  at  Hampton  on  one  hand  and  at  Salem  on  the  other,  went 
back  and  forth  unmolested  in  Newbury,  for  they  could  make  no  impression  on  its 
iron-clad  orthodoxy.  Whitefield  set  the  example,  since  followed  by  the  Salvation 
Army,  of  preaching  in  its  streets,  and  now  lies  buried  under  one  of  its  churches, 
with  almost  the  honors  of  sainthood.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  bom  in  New- 
bur}'.  The  town  must  be  regarded  as  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  anti-slavery  agita- 
tion, beginning  with  its  abolition  deacon  and  ending  with  Garrison.  Puritanism, 
here  as  elsewhere,  had  a  flavor  of  radicalism ;  it  had  its  humorous  side,  and  its 
ministers  did  not  hesitate  to  use  wit  and  sarcasm,  like  Elijah  before  the  priests  of 
Baal.  As.  for  instance,  the  wise  and  learned  clergyman,  Puritan  of  the  Puritans, 
beloved  and  reverenced  by  all,  who  has  just  laid  down  the  burdens  of  his  nearly 
one  hundred  years,  startled  and  shamed  his  brother  ministers,  who  were  zealous 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  by  preparing  for  them  a  form  of 
prayer  for  use  while  engaged  in  catching  runaway  slaves. 

I  have,  I  fear,  dwelt  too  long  upon  the  story  and  tradition  of  the  old  town, 
which  will  doubtless  be  better  told  by  the  orator  of  the  day.  The  theme  is  to  me 
full  of  interest.  Among  the  blessings  which  I  would  gratefully  own  is  the  fact 
that  my  lot  has  been  cast  in  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Merrimack,  within  sight  of 
Newbury  steeples.  Plum  Island  and  Crane  Neck  and  Pipe  Stave  Hills. 

Let  me,  in  closing,  pay  something  of  the  debt  I  have  owed  from  boyhood  by 
expressing  a  sentiment  in  which  I  trust  every  son  of  the  ancient  town  will  unite : 

Joshua  CoflSn — historian  of  Newbury,  teacher,  scholar,  and  antiquarian,  and  one 
of  the  earliest  advocates  of  slave  emancipation,^ — may  his  memory  be  kept  green, 
to  use  the  words  of  Judge  Sewall,  "  so  long  as  Plum  Island  keeps  its  post,  and  a 
sturgeon  leaps  in  Merrimack  River." 

I  am  very  faithfully  thy  friend, 

John  G.  Whittuck. 

The  Toastmaster  gave  for  the  fifteenth  regular  toast : 

OxTB  Generous  Benefactors: 

We  remember  them  aU  today  with  profound  gratitude. 

President  Currier  then  said : 

Toadies  and  Gentlemen : — I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you 
a  citizen  of  Newburyport  who  has  always  taken  a  deep  interest  in  the 
public  charities  and  literary  institutions  of  this  community,  and  can 
therefore  with  great  propriety  be  called  upon  to  respond  to  the  senti- 
ment that  has  just  been  proposed.  I  ask  you  now  to  give  your  atten- 
tion to  some  remarks  from  Edward  S.  Moseley,  Esq.,  of  this  city. 

ADDRESS  OF  EDWARD  S.  MOSELEY,  ESQ. 

Mr.  President : — I  premise  the  few  remarks  I  propose  to  make  by 
thanking  you  for  your  very  complimentary  introduction.  I  received 
only  yesterday  an  intimation  that  I  was  expected  to  reply  to  a  toast  on 
this  occasion,  commemorative  of  those  who  have  bestowed  gifts  to  pro- 
mote the  public  welfare.  I  regret  that  more  time  was  not  allowed  for 
the  preparation  of  remarks  in  some  measure   worthy   of  the  subject, 


116  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

and  still  more,  that  the  duty  was  not  entrusted  to  hands  better  qualified 
to  do  the  subject  justice.  As,  however,  it  might  seem  in  the  highest 
degree  ungrateful  to  allow  the  sentiment  to  pass  in  mournful  silence,  I 
venture  to  respond  in  a  few  words ;  and  yet  the  number  of  those  who 
have  testified  in  deeds  their  love  for  our  dear  old  homestead  is  so  large, 
surpassed  by  no  other  place  of  equal  size,  that  time  will  fail  me  to  enu- 
merate them  all.  Our  generous  benefactors !  "  Si  monunienta  requiris, 
circwnspice.''^  Yes.  Look  around.  The  manifold  gifts  of  our  bene- 
factors form  the  basis,  and  are  built  into  the  very  foundation  upon 
which  rest  our  beneficent  and  educational  institutions.  Yes,  I  begin 
the  honored  list  with  the  name  of  Dummer,  the  colonial  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  who  so  many  years  ago  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
academy,  which  bears  his  name,  and  which  is  now  renewing  its  youth. 
Then  at  an  interval  the  name  of  that  worthy  citizen,  Moses  Brown, 
occurs  to  me, — the  founder  of  the  Brown  High  school;  and  equally 
to  be  honored,  Oliver  Putnam  for  his  bequest  to  the  cause  of  education. 
Josiah  Little,  Samuel  Swett,  Plant  Sawyer,  William  C.  Todd,  and 
others  whose  names  are  recorded  in  marble  as  benefactors  of  the  Pub- 
lic Library.  George  Peabody  also  will  live  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
by  his  munificent  gift  to  the  same  object,  in  token  of  his  recognition  of 
the  affection  he  bore  to  this,  his  place  of  residence  in  youth,  and 
especially  is  our  gratitude  due  to  Michael  H.  Simpson,  bone  of  our  bone 
and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  whose  donation  towards  the  erection  of  the 
annex  to  the  Library  exceeds  that  of  any  other  person.  [The  refer- 
ence of  the  speaker  to  the  latter  evoked  hearty  applause.]  The  hon- 
ored names  of  William  Wheelwright,  William  Horton,  D.  D,,  and 
Daniel  I.  Tenney  rise  to  remembrance,  the  last  of  whom  has  literally 
impressed  his  benefaction  in  granite.  I  must  not  omit  the  name  of 
John  Bromfield,  to  whose  munificence  the  city  of  Newburyport  is  in- 
debted for  thousands  of  the  shade  trees  which  beautify  her  streets, 
nor  that  of  Edmund  Bartlet,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  in  great  part 
for  our  beautiful  Mall.  Especially  would  I  commemorate  Anna 
Jaques,  the  founder  of  the  Hospital,  whose  kindly  gift  will  tend  to 
alleviate  the  ills  of  humanity;  nor  should  the  ladies  be  forgotten, 
whose  loving  sympathy  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Old  Ladies'  Society 
and  Home.  The  gift  of  Moses  Atkinson  for  school  purposes,  and  that 
of  Eben  Hale  who  contributed  the  fund  for  the  relief  of  disabled  tire- 
men,  should  not  be  allowed  to  pass  unnoticed,  and  so  of  John  S. 
Toppan,  who  through  love  and  affection  erected  the  beautiful  gateway 
to  the  Oak  Hill  Cemetery;  and  then  the  cemetery  itself,  originally 
founded  by  private  subscription,  thrown  open  to  the  public  on  terms 
of  which  all  can  avail.     Delicacy  prevents  me  from  saying  more  than 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  117 

to  allude  to  the  gift  of  the  Public  Library  Building  to  the  city  with 
a  fund  to  keep  it  ever  in  repair.  I  fear  that  in  the  brief  time  allotted 
me,  I  may  not  have  recalled  the  names  of  many,  who  here  and  now 
deserve  recognition  and  remembrance,  but  of  this  be  assured,  that  the 
record  of  good  deeds  done  below  is  faithfully  kei)t  on  high,  and  that 
their  sweet  savor  rises  acceptably  on  swift  wings  from  earth  to  heaven, 
there  to  yield  perpetual  fragrance. 

The  Toastmaster  announced  for  the  sixteenth  regular  toast : 

The  Clergymen  of  the  three  towns  : 

Skillful  alike  with  tongue  and  pen 
They  preach  to  all  men  everywhere, 
The  Gospel  of  the  Golden  Rule, 
The  New  Commandment  given  to  men, 
Thinking  the  deed  and  not  the  creed. 
Would  help  us  in  our  utmost  need. 

President  Currier,  introducing  the  first  speaker  invited  to  respond  to 
this  toast,  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — The  influence  and  ability  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  work  they  have  accomplished  here,  are  topics  so  interesting 
and  suggestive  that  I  am  sure  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  venture  to  ask 
your  attention  while  two  members  of  that  profession  speak  of  the  in- 
cidents, and  of  the  men,  prominent  in  the  religious  life  of  this  com- 
munity. I  shall  call,  tirst,  upon  a  distinguished  clergyman,  who  has 
lived  and  labored  here  for  many  years,  to  address  you.  Familiar  with 
the  early  history  of  the  various  churches  organized  within  the  limits  of 
Old  Newbury,  his  views  on  this  and  kindred  subjects  are  entitled  to 
your  respectful  consideration.  I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
to  you  Rev.  Dr.  Spalding  of  Newburyport. 

ADDRESS  OF  REV.  SAMUEL  J.  SPALDING,  D.  D. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — It  is  now  so  late  in  the  af- 
ternoon, that  it  is  hardly  worth  the  while  to  make  more  than  the 
briefest  allusion  to  the  clergy  of  Old  Newbury.  From  the  fli*st  settle- 
ment of  the  township  they  have  been  a  most  prominent  and  important 
factor  in  the  development  of  the  character  of  its  people,  and  the  form- 
ation of  its  institutions.  Some  years  ago  Horace  Greeley  was  passing 
the  night  at  our  house.  At  the  supper-table  he  asked  if  Newburyport 
retained  its  old  reputation.  I  said,  I  do  not  understand  to  what  you 
refer.  "When  I  wa^  x  boy,"  he  continued,  "I  used  to  come  to  New- 
buryport with  my  father  occasionally  a  marketing,  and  I  remember 
that  once  on  our  return  the  neighbors  dropped  in  to  hear  the  news. 
Among  other  remarks,  ray  father  said,  they  have  more  religion  and  will 


118  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FlfTIETH    ANNIVERSARY, 

drink  more  rum  in  Old  Newbury  than  in  any  town  I  ever  heard  of. 
The  elder  Greeley  was  not  far  out  of  the  way  in  his  estimate  of  the 
place  religion  occupied  in  the  minds  of  our  fathers.  And  as  our  rum 
had  a  world-wide  reputation  for  its  purity  and  excellence,  it  unques- 
tionably was  appreciated  and  used  freely  at  home.  Both  their  religion 
and  their  rum  had  the  sterling  qualities  of  strength  and  flavor.  The 
religion  of  the  people  was  taught  them  by  their  clergy,  and  it  incul- 
cated reverence,  patriotism,  fidelity  and  righteousness.  Few  communi- 
ties have  had  so  learned,  so  able,  and  so  faithful  ministers  as  Old  New- 
bury. The  settlement  was  started  high  religiously  and  educationally 
by  Parker  and  Noyes.  Both  had  reputation  and  influence  in  the  old 
country,  and  since  the  settlement  these  pulpits  have  been  fllled  by  some 
of  the  ablest  divines  in  America,  Such  men  as  Toppan,  and  Tucker, 
and  Popkin,  and  Withington,  Tafts  and  Hale,  Lowell  and  Andrews, 
Tappan  and  Woods,  Parish  and  Durant,  Parsons  and  Dana,  Bass  and 
Washburne,  Spring  and  Dimmick,  and  others  not  less  laborious  and 
successful.  These  clergymen  were  broad  and  comprehensive  in  their 
plans  of  work  and  in  their  aims.  It  was  natural  that  among  men  of 
such  marked  personal  characteristics,  there  should  have  been  strong 
and  sometimes  violent  antagonisms,  and  this  community  has  been 
shaken  from  centre  to  circumference  again  and  again  by  the  theologi- 
cal differences  of  its  ministers.  But  the  upheaval  has  borne  everything 
onward  to  a  higher,  broader,  and  better  spiritual  elevation.  These  old 
clergymen  had  the  idea  that  they  were  not  doing  their  duty  as  clergy- 
men unless  they  gave  special  attention  to  the  flock  committed  to  their 
care.  You  have  heard  of  their  work  as  it  has  been  alluded  to  today. 
I  might  go  on  to  speak  of  the  characteristics  of  those  men,  but  it  is  too 
late.  They  have  had  their  place,  they  have  done  their  work,  and  the 
character  of  the  Newburyport  people,  the  institutions  which  have 
grown  up  here,  the  charity  which  is  so  wide  and  diffusive,  comes  not 
alone  from  their  heritage  as  children  of  such  parents,  but  in  no  small 
degree  from  the  thorough  training  they  have  had  in  the  church  and  in 
the  common  schools. 

At  the  close  of  Rev.  Dr.  Spalding's  remarks,  President  Currier  said : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — You  are  well  aware  that,  at  the  present 
time,  a  large  number  of  our  citizens  are  earnest  and  devout  members  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  chui-ch.  We  recognize  the  power  and  influence  of 
its  clergy,  and  today  invite  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Teeling  of  the  Church  of  the 
Inmiaculate  Conception,  Newburyport,  to  speak  of  the  work  the  clergy 
of  that  church  have  accomplished  here. 


OF   THE    SETTLE3IENT    OF    NEWBURY.  119 

ADDRESS  OF  REV.  A.  J.  TEELING. 

Mr.  President.,  Toadies  and  Gentlemen: — In  responding  to  the  sen- 
timent proposed,  I  but  humbly  follow  in  the  steps  of  the  historian 
whose  truthful  page  records  what  the  poet  has  sung  and  what  the  divine 
spirit  of  revelation  has  dictated.  That  is,  that  the  clergy,  those  called 
and  chosen  to  teach  mankind  what  their  Divine  Master  taught  them, 
should  always  by  tongue  and  pen  elevate  and  make  better  those  com- 
mitted to  their  care,  should  indeed  impress  upon  them  by  word  and  ex- 
ample the  sublime  precept  of  the  Golden  Rule,  love  for  God,  and  love 
for  all  men  for  his  sake.  This  commandment  is  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  religion,  it  bespeaks  Christian  faith,  is  the  source  of  Chris- 
tian hope,  and  inspires  Christian  charity. 

■  The  checkered  pages  of  the  history  of  our  city  during  the  past  250 
years  bear  frequent  testimony,  no  doubt,  to  the  zeal  of  the  clergy  who 
have  gone  before  us.  As  for  myself,  howevei",  I  know  little  about  this 
past,  and  perhaps  it  is  better  to  look  forward  than  backward — to  act, 
act  in  the  living  present — to  see  to  it  that  this  new  commandment  be 
still  more  earnestly  and  kindly  enforced.  While  agreeing,  however, 
with  the  opening  sentiment  proposed  by  our  honored  toastmaster, 
another  command,  that  of  professing  our  faith  before  men,  impels  me 
to  dissent  from  the  closing  couplet,  which  so  emphatically  places  the 
deed  above  the  creed.  If  they  had  been  placed  on  an  equality,  if 
while  reading  with  St.  James  that  "faith  without  good  works  is 
dead " — he  had  also  read  with  St.  Paul  that  "  without  faith  it  is  impos- 
sible to  please  God,"  I  could  most  cordially  agree  with  the  whole  senti- 
ment; and  would  do  that  the  more  willingly,  because  I  realize  that  in 
no  celebration  in  this  noble  country  of  ours  should  the  religious  ele- 
ment be  wanting.  No  country  in  the  world  beai^s  stronger  marks  of 
the  existence  of  the  religious  spirit.  America — the  United  States  par- 
ticularly— is  the  child  of  religion.  Religion,  for  I  must  call  it  so, 
whether  I  agree  with  its  particular  tenets  or  not,  sent  the  Puritan  to 
Massachusetts,  the  Quaker  to  Philadelphia,  the  Catholic  to  Maryland. 
Yes,  and  to  go  back  still  further,  when  the  greed  of  empire  and  of  gold 
failed  to  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  religion  inspired  the 
woman  who  pledged  her  jewels  to  help  the  noble  work.  Religion  en- 
couraged the  first  sailors  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  amid  all  their  doubts 
and  fears,  and  inspired  them  to  plant  the  sign  of  Redemption  in  the 
New  World,  even  before  they  fixed  the  standard  of  their  sovereign. 

Religion  has  set  her  seal  on  the  utmost  limits  of  our  country  from 
the  rivers  St.  Lawrence  and  Holy  Cross  (St.  Croix)  at  the  north  and 
east  to  St.  Augustine  at  the  south  and  San  Francisco  at  the  west.  So 
much  for  religion  in  general.     Now  I  would  like  to  say  a  word  about 


120  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

it  in  our  own  particular  city  (whose  250th  anniversary  we  commemorate 
today),  and  I  suppose  it  is  incumbent  on  me  to  speak  of  that  religion 
of  whose  Golden  Rule  I  am  an  humble  exponent.  The  temi  Irishmen 
and  Catholic  are  almost  synonymous.  Now  the  Irishman  is  a  foreigner 
only  so  long  as  the  law  demands — that  time  expired  there  is  no  more 
faithful  American  citizen ;  his  children  are  American  from  birth,  but 
Catholicity  requires  no  naturalization  in  our  land.  It  is  no  foreigner ;  if 
not  indigenous  to  the  soil,  it  has  certainly  the  claim  of  precedence  here. 
However  there  were  circumstances,  which  it  is  better  not  now  to  refer 
to,  that  caused  it  for  a  time  to  be  lost  sight  of ;  but  it  was  still  here  and 
under  the  blessed  light  of  religious  freedom  it  has  had  a  most  luxuriant 
growth  within  the  last  half  century. 

Sixty  years  ago  there  were  in  all  New  England  only  as  many  Catho- 
lic j)riests  as  there  are  today  in  Newburyport,  and  the  Catholics  scattered 
over  that  territory  had  to  rely  upon  their  ministration.  I  dare  say  there 
were  a  few  Catholics  long  before  that  period  even  here  in  Newburyport 
—French  and  Irish ;  for  where  in  the  world  can  you  go  and  not  find 
one  of  the  latter.  It  has  been  said  that  one  of  Columbus's  sailors  was 
a  McCarthy  from  Kerry.  Joking  aside,  the  hand  of  God,  for  some  wise 
purpose,  no  doubt,  has  sent  the  race  the  world  over,  and  everywhere  the 
Irishman  has  taken  his  glorious  old  faith  with  him ;  so  we  find  as  far 
back  as  1839  that  Father  French,  on  his  way  from  Portland  to  Boston, 
stopped  over  here,  and  gathering  together  the  few  Catholics,  offered  for 
them  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  resi- 
dents. Father  Cannavan  of  Dover,  N.  H.,  for  many  years  visited  this 
place  once  a  month  and  ministered  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  people. 
Through  his  efforts  the  vestry  of  the  Old  South  church  was  purchased 
and  moved  to  Charles  street.  This  was  the  grain  of  mustard  seed. 
Father  John  O'Brien,  of  happy  memory,  who  recently  died  at  Lowell, 
was  installed  the  first  pastor  of  Newburyport  and  the  surrounding 
towns  in  1850,  and  labored  in  this  portion  of  the  vineyard  till  called  to 
another.  This  good  man  was  succeeded  by  one  whom  most  of  you 
knew  and  respected,  Rev.  Henry  Lennon,  who  built  our  present  church, 
and  who  after  twenty  years  of  hard  labor  for  the  welfare  of  the  people 
of  his  parish,  which  embraced  Newburyport,  West  Newbury,  Ames- 
bury  and  Salisbury,  went  to  his  reward  in  the  month  of  July,  1871. 

Of  the  present  clergy  and  their  work  in  ministering  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  four  thousand  people,  it  becomes  not  me  to  speak,  but  I  trust 
their  labors  may  be  such  that  the  golden  rule  may  shine  still  more 
brightly  before  all  our  eyes,  so  that  those  of  our  population  who  may 
live  to  see  our  city's  three  hundredth  anniversary  may,  looking  back, 
have  reason  to  thank  God  for  His  loving  guidance. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  121 

The  Toastmaster  proposed  for  the  seventeenth  regular  toast: 

The  Literary  Class  among  rs. 

Native  or  adopted.  They  do  us  honor,  and  in  the  wide  world  their  works  do 
honor  them. 

Immediately  after  the  reading  of  this  toast,  President  Cun-ier  said : 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — I  shall  call  upon  a  well  known  author,  a 
worthy  representative  of  "the  literary  class  among  us,"  to  respond 
to  the  sentiment.  He  is  at  least  a  son  of  Newbury  by  adoption,  and 
claims  to  have  discovered  here  that  combination  of  rural  quiet  and 
comfort,  with  enough  of  the  bustle  and  activity  of  city  life  to  give  to 
the  locality  a  special  charm  and  attraction  as  a  place  of  residence  for 
those  who  labor  with  tongue  or  pen.  I  have  now  the  honor  to  intro- 
dijce  to  you  that  brilliant  writer  and  highly  esteemed  citizen,  James 
Parton  of  Newburyport. 

ADDRESS  OF  JAMES  PARTON. 

The  hour,  Mr.  President,  is  late,  and  the  time  appointed  for  the  even- 
ing exercises  is  near.  I  shall  therefore  spare  you  anything  in  the  way 
of  a  formal  speech,  and  this  I  can  do  with  the  greater  propriety  because 
we  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  among  us  a  literary  class.  Here,  the 
spirit  of  literature  pervades  all  classes,  and  even  the  production  of  lit- 
erature is  not  confined  to  any  one  portion  of  the  community.  Every 
now  and  then  we  break  out  in  a  poem,  a  magazine  article,  a  novel,  or 
else  something  ponderous  in  the  way  of  a  biography,  and  very  likely 
the  hit  of  our  season  will  be  made  by  a  new  hand. 

The  first  entertainment  I  ever  attended  in  Newburyport  gave  me  a 
lively  idea  of  the  varied  talents  of  the  people  who  live  in  this  region. 
The  play  presented  was  written  by  a  native  of  the  soil;  the  scenery  was 
painted  by  a  resident  artist;  the  music,  which  was  composed  by  a  na- 
tive musician,  was  performed  by  native  talent:  and  when  all  was  over, 
the  ice-cream  and  sponge  cake,  which  had  been  prepared  by  native 
skill,  was  handed  about  by  native  grace  and  loveliness. 

The  entertainment  of  today  might  also  be  cited  as  an  evidence  that 
neither  taste  nor  talent  is  here  confined  to  any  class.  I  need  not  par- 
ticularize in  the  presence  of  an  audience,  who  for  the  space  of  nearly 
nine  hours  have  heard  and  witnessed  the  exertions  of  Newbury  genius 
with  unflagging  interest.  The  toast,  therefore,  Mr.  President,  em- 
braces the  whole  population.  In  truth,  that  house  must  be  poor  in- 
deed in  this  place  which  does  not  contain  its  shelf  of  books,  although 
there  is  ever  open  for  us  all  one  of  the  most  beautiful  libraries  in  New 
England. 

16 


122  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FltT'IETH    ANNIVEKSAKY 

The  Toastmaster  proposed  for  the  eighteenth  regular  toast : 
The  Business  Men  of  the  Theee  Towns: 
They  are  the  natural  chiefs  of  an  industrial  people. 

President  Currier  then  offered  the  following  remarks: 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — I  shall  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to 
invite  a  prominent  and  successful  manufacturer  of  this  city  to  address 
you.  His  experience  in  the  management  of  large  industrial  enterprises, 
and  his  acknowledged  ability  and  business  sagacity  will  enable  him  to 
speak,  intelligently  and  acceptably,  of  the  future  business  prospects  of 
this  community.  Permit  me,  therefore,  to  introduce  to  you  Elisha  P. 
Dodge,  esq.  of  Xewburyport, — an  active  and  enterprising  citizen,  who, 
having  established  a  new  and  important  industry  here,  is  entitled  to 
your  i-espectful  attention. 

ADDRESS  OF  E.  P.  DODGE,  ESQ. 

Mr.  President: — To  be  asked  on  an  occasion  like  this  to  speak  for 
the  business  men  of  Newburyport,  to  be  in  that  way  associated  with 
the  merchant  princes  who  in  the  past  have  carried  her  name  to  every 
port  in  the  world,  is  an  honor  which  I  fully  appreciate.  I  regret  that 
I  have  not  the  ability  more  worthily  to  respond.  But  I  labor  under 
some  disadvantages,  for  this  is  peculiarly  the  day  of  those  who  claim 
Old  Newbury  as  their  bii'th-place.  I  have  not  that  honor,  and  I  can- 
not, as  many  of  you  can,  recall  the  former  times  and  tell  of  the  part  my 
ancestors  took  in  developing  this  community.  They  fought  the  good 
tight  on  other  fields.  So  the  few  words  I  have  to  say  may  most  prop- 
erly be  confined  to  congratulations  upon  our  present  condition,  and  to 
expressions  of  my  strong  hope  for  the  future. 

It  is  true  that  by  the  revolution  which  steam  power  and  machinery 
have  wrought,  Newburypoi-t  has  lost  some  of  its  old-time  importance  as 
a  commercial  place.  The  revolution  has  changed  but  has  not  destroyed 
our  business  enterprise.  The  ships  of  our  merchants  may  be  less  in 
number,  and  perhaps  they  do  not,  as  formerly,  carry  merchandise  on 
every  sea.  Yet  at  this  moment,  on  a  hundred  freight  trains,  the  prod- 
ucts of  our  factories  are  being  carried  to  their  destinations  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  this  great  land.  From  Maine  to  Oregon, 
from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf,  the  manufactures  of  Newburyport  may  be 
found  in  almost  every  city  or  town  of  importance.  It  is  no  disparage- 
ment of  our  sister  cities  to  say  the  reputation  of  our  work  is  second  to 
none.  The  pre-eminent  skill  of  our  shij)  builders  has  long  been  recog- 
nized. Our  artisans  in  a  variety  of  other  industries  ai-e  winning  an 
equally  good  name.     Who   has    not    observed    development   in    other 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OK    NEAVBIRY. 

branches  of  trade,  until  we  have  today  business  men  in 
nient  of  whom  we  may  well  be  proud. 

And  as  to  the  future.  The  feeling  that  success  cannot 
is  fast  dying  out.  Why  did  it  ever  existf  Our  situation,  our  faciliti? 
for  communication,  are  unexcelled.  Our  young  men  are  capable  and 
energetic.  Patient  work  in  the  right  direction  will  bring  us  still  fur- 
ther success. 

But  the  material  prosperity,  which  may  as  well  be  won  here  as  else- 
where, is  not  all  we  have  to  live  for.  Nowhere  on  earth  can  more  at- 
tractive homes  be  made  than  on  our  grand  old  High  street.  And  the 
culture  and  refinement  so  essential  to  the  highest  happiness  pervades 
the  atmosphere  of  Newburyport.  And  so,  Mr.  President,  while  today 
we  honor  those  who  have  gone  before  and  congratulate  ourselves  upon 
our  present  prosperity,  we  will  look  forward,  fully  assured  that  this 
goodly  heritage  will  descend  unimpaired  to  cur  children,  and  that  in 
their  hands  the  fair  fame  of  Old  Newbury  should  never  be  dimmed. 

The  Toastmaster  announced  as  the  nineteenth  regular  toast : 

The  MoNiED  Interest  of  ottb  sisteb  city,  Lattrence  : 

No  surer  guaranty  of  safetj'  and  hcnesty  cculd  be  given  than  the  connection 
with  it  of  that  genial  son  of  Old  Newbury,  John  R.  Rollins. 

President  Currier  then  said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Among  the  Newbury  men  who  have  been 
called  to  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility  in  neighboring  towns  and 
cities,  there  is  one  who  early  left  the  home  of  his  ancestors  and  is  now 
an  honored  and  esteemed  citizen  of  a  younger  and  more  prosperous 
community  on  the  banks  of  the  Merrimack,  not  many  miles  above  us. 
He  has  come  back  today  to  participate  in  the  pleasures  and  enjoyments 
of  this  occasion,  and  will,  with  your  pei mission,  say  a  few  words  in  ac- 
knowledgement of  the  call  that  our  Toastmaster  has  made  upon  him. 
Allow  me  to  present  to  you  Hon.  John  R.  Rollins  of  Lawrence. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  R.  ROLLINS. 

Mr.  President  and  Friends: — I  have  no  doubt  you  have  all  heard  of 
the  man  who  in  the  early  part  of  the  late  war  was  so.  very  patriotic 
that  he  was  willing  to  sacrifice  his  own  and  his  wife's  relations  upon 
the  altar  of  his  countiy,  provided  he  could  be  exempt.  I  am  much  in 
the  same  predicament;  and  in  this  presence  could  feel  entirely  resigned 
to  sacrifice  all  my  friends  upon  your  festal  altar:  but  I  should  feel  un- 
grateful indeed  if  I  failed  to  thank  your  committee  for  the  honor  of 
their  invitation,  and  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  this  glorious  celebra- 
tion.    I  have  listened  with  much  pleasure  to  the  reminiscences  of  Ould 


124  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FltTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

Newbury  and  would  only  add  a  few  words.  You  have  referred  to  me 
as  belonging  to  Lawrence.  Born  in  the  old  town  of  Newbury,  Law- 
rence has  been  my  home  during  most  of  the  years  of  its  existence. 
And  allow  me  to  say  that  I  think  Lawrence  is  sort  of  cousin  or  near  rel- 
ative of  your  town.  How?  Francis  C  Lowell,  Patrick  T.  Jackson 
and  Paul  Moody,  all  natives  of  Newbury,  were  the  founders  of  Lowell. 
Dr.  James  Jackson,  also  a  native  of  Newbury,  had  a  daughter  who  mar- 
7"ied  Hon.  Chas.  S.  Storrow,  one  of  the  engineers,  of  the  Boston  &  Low- 
ell railroad,  for  many  years  its  manager,  and  subsequently  the  agent  of 
the  Essex,  (or  Locks  &  Canals  Co.)  of  Lawrence,  and  still  its  president. 
Thus  you  see  that  Newbury  men  set  the  forces  in  motion  that  built  up 
both  those  cities  on  the  beautiful  river.  And  in  one  particular,  cer- 
tainly, neither  has  discredited  its  parentage.  I  refer  to  patriotism. 
For  the  immortal  6th  regiment  gave  from  the  Lowell  and  Lawrence  com- 
panies the  lirst  martyrs  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  in  the  streets  of  Bal- 
timore, and  Company  M,  formerly  Company  K,  of  the  6th  now  consti- 
tutes a  part  of  your  glorious  old  8th  Regiment,  which  was  also  one  of 
the  first  to  rally  to  the  defence  of  the  flag.  But  I  must  say  no  more, 
except  again  to  thank  you  for  your  courtesy. 

At  the  close  of  the  address  made  by  Mr.  Rollins,  President  Currier 
said: 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — The  lengthening  shadows  remind  me  that 
the  day  is  ending,  and  that  these  exercises  must  be  brought  to  an 
abrupt  close.  Before  we  separate,  however,  I  desire  that  some  verses 
suggested  by  this  occasion  and  written  by  a  lineal  descendant  of  Henry 
Sewall, — one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Old  Newbury, — may  be  read  for 
your  edification.  I  shall  therefore  take  the  liberty,  even  at  this  late 
hour,  of  inviting  a  former  townsman — Thomas  W.  Silloway,  esq.,  of 
Boston — to  read  the  verses  that  have  been  entrusted  to  his  care,  and  so 
bring  to  a  fitting  close  the  literary  exercises  of  the  day. 

ADDRESS  OF  THOS.  W.  SILLOWAY,  ESQ. 

Mr.  President  and  Friends: — Not  long  ago  you  did  me  the  honor 
to  listen  to  a  public  address  in  which  I  related  the  result  of  my  obser- 
vations in  the  town  of  Newbury,  England,  the  place  from  which  emi- 
grated in  1634  the  more  prominent,  and  I  may  add,  distinguished  set- 
tlers of  this  community.  Remembering  this  fact,  and  knowing  that  to- 
day a  large  number  of  interesting  speakers  would  be  present,  I  thought 
to  fall  back  on  my  earlier  honors  and  remain  silent.  But  an  event  in- 
teresting to  me,  and  I  think  to  you  as  well,  has  induced   me  to  offer  a 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    XEWBL'RY.  125 

few  words  by  way  of  introduction  to  the  verses  I  have  been  called 
upon  to  read. 

There  are  probably  but  few  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  who  have 
not  read  or  heard  of  the  ancient  grave-stone  in  the  Oldtown  Burying 
Ground,  marking  the  spot  where  repose  the  mortal  remains  of  Henry 
Sewall,  and  reciting  that  in  1635  "he  helped  begin  this  plantation,  fur- 
nishing English  servants,  neat  cattle,  and  provisions."  Recognizing  his 
claim  to  be  remembered  on  this  occasion,  I  also  wish  to  impress  upon 
your  minds  the  fact  that  in  the  town  of  Medlield,  Mass.,  there  resides 
one  of  his  direct  descendants,  the  Rev.  Chas.  C.  Sewall,  a  well  known 
Unitarian  clergyman,  born  May  10,  1802,  and  consequently  now  in  the 
eighty-fourth  year  of  his  age. 

On  the  thirtieth  day  of  April  last,  while  meditating  on  the  subject  of 
the  proposed  celebration  of  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  settlement  of  Xewbury,  and  realizing  that  his  infirmities  would  not 
allow  him  to  participate  in  the  exercises  of  the  day,  he  was  moved  to 
write  the  hymn  I  am  about  to  read,  not  expecting  that  it  would  be  used 
on  this  occasion,  but  merely  that  he  might  give  expression  to  the 
thoughts  that  the  theme  inspired.  Its  devout  spirit  and  vigorous  tone 
show  that  "while  the  outward  man  has  been  perishing  the  inward  one 
has  been  renewed  day  by  day." 

The  verses  were  handed  to  Mr.  Samuel  B.  Noyes  of  Canton,  a  friend . 
of  the  author,  who  expected  to  be  here  today.     In  his  absence,   how- 
ever, I  have  been  asked  to  read  them,  and  now,  without  consultation  or 
conference  with  the  venerable  author,  I  submit  them  for  your  approval 
and  kind  consideration. 

ORIGINAL  HYMN  BY   EEV.    CHAKLES   0.   SEWALL  OF  MEDFIELD. 

O  Thou,  to  whom  our  fathers  prayed, — 

Trusting  Thy  grace  to  share; 
When  here,  in  faith,  new  homes  they  made, 

Relying  on  Thy  care; 

Accept  we  pray,  our  offering 

Of  gratitude  and  praise; 
This  day  no  chronicle  can  bring 

To  mar  their  fame  and  ways. 

Their  hearts  and  lives  they  consecrate 

To  do  and  bear  Thy  will, 
Though  trials  sore,  and  hardships  great, 

The  path  they  trod  might  fill. 

O  give  to  us  who  live  to  reap 
Blessings  they  made  to  be, 


126  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNI VERSAITY' 

Wisdom  and  will,  we  need,  to  keep 
Like  faith— like  trust  in  Thee. 

Our  all  to  Thee  we  consecrate, — 

Our  aim  and  joy  Thy  will; 
That  we  may  leave,  or  soon,  or  late. 

These  homes  so  lovely  still. 

Tis  Thine  alone,  O  God!  to  bless 

As  Thou  our  fathers  blest; 
Thy  words  of  love  and  kindness. 

Have  brought  them  peace  and  rest- 

And  now,  Mr.  President  and  fellow  citizens,  I  only  desire  to  add,  in 
closing,  that  the  author  of  these  lines,  although  an  octogenarian,  is  still 
interested  in  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  this  old  town,  where  his  an- 
cestors lived  and  died.  He  is  a  noble  christian  gentleman, — a  saint 
still  in  the  flesh, — ready  with  tongue  or  pen  to  do  his  share  in  commem- 
orating the  virtues  and  heroism  of  the  men  and  women  who  landed  on 
the  banks  of  the  River  Parker  in  1635. 

Impelled  by  the  same  sentiment  we  have  assembled  here  to  offer  our 
tributes  of  praise  and  revive  our  recollections  of  the  past.  It  has  cer- 
tainly been  a  day  well  spent,  and  I  trust  a  season  of  pleasure  and  profit 
to  us  all. 


At  the  close  of  Mr.  Silloway's  remarks,  it  being  then  nearly  seven 
o'clock  p.  m.,  the  audience  was  dismissed  and  soon  quietly  dispersed. 


EVENING    RECEPTION. 


EVENING   RECEPTION. 


During  the  literary  exercises  of  the  afternoon  the  final  preparations 
were  made,  under  the  direction  of  a  special  committee,  consisting  of 
of  Messrs.  S.  J.  Spalding,  P.  K.  Hills  and  Edward  F.  Bartlett.  for  the 
Reception  and  Levee  to  be  held  at  City  Hall  that  evening.  All  the 
seats  on  the  floor  of  the  upper  hall  were  removed,  in  order  that  ample 
space  might  be  provided  for  the  accommodation  of  those  who  desired 
to  attend.  The  temporary  platfoi-m  was  taken  down,  and  the  stage,  re- 
stored to  its  original  dimensions,  was  specially  reserved  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  orchestra,  who  were  to  furnish  the  music,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Thomas  M.  Carter  of  Boston.  The  walls  of  the  council 
chamber  were  hung  with  the  portraits  of  men  and  women  prominent  in 
the  history  of  Old  Newbury,  collected  and  an-anged  by  John  T.  Brown, 
esq.,  of  Newburyport. 

The  company  began  to  assemble  as  early  as  half-past  seven  o'clock 
p.  m.  A  large  number  of  citizens,  young  and  old,  with  many  distin- 
guished guests  from  abroad,  occupied  seats  in  the  balcony,  or  gathered 
in  groups  about  the  Hall,  greeting  old  acquaintances,  renewing  old  ties 
of  friendship,  or  quietly  listening  to  the  inspiring  music,  which  was  ren- 
dered by  the  orchestra  in  accordance  with  the  following  programme: 

1.  Sax  Fkaxcisco  Makch Carter 

2.  OvERTiRE— Poet  and  Peasant Suppe 

2.     Selection — II  Trovatore Verdi 

4.  Minuet Boccherini 

5.  Waltz— Leinates  Klange Lubitzky 

6.  Song — Sweet  Genevieve Tucker 

Cornet  Solo  by  Me.  W.  H.  Chambers. 

7.  Galop — Ringbahn Popp 

8.  Waltz — Normen Strausn 

9.  Songs  Without  Words Park/w 

10.  Mazurka — One  Heart,  One  Soul Strmwf 

11.  Waltz— Forget  Me  Not Waldteufel 

17 


130  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

The  special  committee  on  reception  invited  John  T.  Brown,  Esq.,  a 
member  of  the  general  committee,  to  make  the  proposed  collection  of 
porti'aits,  and  placing  the  matter  in  his  hands  gave  him  full  authority 
to  complete  the  necessary  arrangements  for  carrying  out  this  part  of 
the  programme.  Mr.  Brown  accepted  the  invitation  and  was  active  and 
unwearied  in  his  efforts  to  make  the  collection  worthy  of  the  occasion, 
and  was  certainly  more  successful  in  this  respect  than  could  have  been 
reasonably  expected,  as  will  be  seen  by  an  examination  of  the  list  of 
portraits  given  below,  representing  clergymen,  lawyers,  shipmasters, 
merchants,  and  ladies  prominent  in  the  history  and  society  of  old  New- 
bury fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago : 


KEV.    JOHN   ADAMS. 

Known  as  "Reformation  John,"  who  was  the  founder  of  Methodism  in  Newbury 
in  1825,  and  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  Adelphia  street  (now  Purchase  street) 
Methodist  Society. 

JOHN   QUINCY   ADAMS. 

Sixth  President  of  the  United  States,  who  came  to  Newburyport  in  1787  and 
remained  three  years,  studying  law  with  Chief  Justice  Parsons.  Delivered  an 
address  of  welcome  to  President  Washington  on  his  visit  to  this  town  in  1789. 
Portrait  painted  1815  at  the  time  of  the  Treaty  of  Ghent.     Aged  47. 

JOHN   QUINCY   ADAMS. 

Painted  in  Washington,  D.  C,  by  A.  Giebert,  in  1844,  when  Mr.  Adams  was  76 
years  of  age. 

JOHN  QUINCY   ADAMS. 

A  very  fine  portrait  of  the  sixth  President  of  the  United  States,  painted  by 
Healey,  representing  Mr.  Adams  as  he  appeared  towards  the  close  of  his  life. 

REV.    JOHN    ANDREWS,    D.    D. 

Pastor  Pleasant  street  Society,  Newburyport,  from  1788  to  1830. 

JOHN   BALCH. 

Underwriter  and  merchant  and  Revolutionary  soldier.    Born  1760;  died  1836. 

EDMUND   BARTLET. 

He  laid  out  "  Bartlet  Mall,"  making  a  donation  of  seven-ninths  of  the  entire  cost 
of  the  same,  and  its  name,  "Bartlet  Mall"  given  in  his  honor. 

OFFIN   BOARDMAN,   SENIOR. 

A  sea  captain  and  large  ship  owner.  Revolutionary  soldier.  Prisoner  in  Eng- 
land from  1776  to  1779.  Escaped  to  France,  tlience  to  America.  He  piloted  a 
British  transport  into  Newburyport  harbor,  and  after  safely  getting  her  in  fTie 


OK    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    XEWBLRY.  131 

harbor  he  suddenly  turned  and  ordered  some  of  his  associates  to  haul  down  the 
British  flag.     Bom  1747;  died  1811.     Painted  in  1787. 

A  MAEINE   VIEW. 

Sketch  of  Offln  Boardman,  senior,  on  the  deck  of  the  transport  ordering  the 
British  commander  to  haul  down  his  flag. 

OFFIX    BOARDMAN   JR. 

Sixth  of  the  name.  His  ancestors  gave  the  land  for  Boardman  street  in  1707. 
A  master  mariner,  verj'  successful.  Coat  buttons  always  ten  cent,  and  vest  five 
cent  coins.     Swain,  artist.     Painted  in  1825. 

SAEAH   GEEENLKAF. 

Wife  of  Offln  Boardman,  Sr.     Portrait  painted  in  1787. 

JUDITH   BOARDMAN. 

Wife  of  Offin  Boardman,  jr.     Swain,  artist.     Painted  in  1825. 

RT.    REV.    EDWARD   BASS. 

First  Episcopal  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  from  1797  to  1803.  Rector  of  St. 
Paul's  church  fifty-one  years. 

CAPT.   MOSES  BROWN. 

A  very  brave  man,  of  great  courage,  as  master  of  frigates  in  Revolutionary 
war,  and  also  in  the  French  war  of  1796  to  1801. 

JtT>GE   NATHANIEL   BYFIELD. 

Judge  of  the  Admiralty.  Byfield  Parish  was  named  for  him,  and  in  return  for 
the  compliment  Judge  Byfield  gave  a  bell  in  1703  for  the  meeting  house.  Bom  in 
1663;  died  in  1733. 

CAPTAIN    ROBERT    BATLEY. 

Shipmaster  and  importer  in  West  India  trade  for  a  long  term  of  years.  A  man 
of  great  benevolence. 

ME.    ABNEE   CALDWELL. 

Promident  as  a  merchant  in  Newburyport  fifty  years  ago. 

MRS.    LYDIA   STOREY    CALDWELL. 

Wife  of  Mr.  Abner  Caldwell,  of  Newburyport. 

BEV.   THOMAS   CAEY. 

Pastor  First  Religious  (now  Pleasant  street)  Society  from  1769  to  1788. 

MADAME    CAEY. 

Wife  of  Rev.  Thomas  Cary,  pastor  of  the  Pleasant  street  church. 

CAPT.     DAVID    COATES. 

Prominent  in  the  organization  of  the  Marine  Society ;  commanded  one  of  four 
vessels  sent  by  Newburyport  merchants  to  drive  the  British  out  of  Penobscot  bay. 

ME8.   DAVID    COATES. 

Wife  of  Captain  David  Coates. 


132  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

MI88   COATE8. 

Daughter  of  Capt.  David  Coates,  and  wife  of  Col.  John  Greenleaf. 

CAPT.    DAVID   COFFIN. 

A  merchant  widely  known  as  an  importer  and  owner  of  shipping. 

MRS.    DAVID    COFFIN. 

Wife  of  Capt.  David  Coffin. 

REV.   PAUL   COFFIN. 

Born  in  Newbury  1737;  died  1821. 

COL.   JEREMIAH   COLMAN. 

Chief  marshal  at  the  anniversary  in  1835,  a  prominent  official  in  the  old  Massa- 
chusetts militia.     Born  in  Newbury  1783.     T.  B.  Lawson,  artist. 

CAPT.    CHARLES   COOK. 

Painted  at  Antwerp.     Artist  unknown. 

WILLIAM  CURRIER. 

Representative  to  the  Legislature  from  Newburyport  in  1835 — introduced 
Acting  Governor  Armstrong  to  the  citizens  at  the  anniversary  1835 — was  captain 
of  marines  on  the  privateer  Decatur,  Captain  William  Nichols,  in  the  war  of 
1812.     Bom  June  1778;  died  April,  1854. 

CALEB   CU8HING. 

Orator  ot  the  200th  anniversary  settlement  of  Newbury,  first  mayor  of  New- 
buryport, State  Senator,  Representative  to  Congress,  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to 
China,  United  States  Minister  to  Spain,  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States 
and  counsel  for  the  United  States  Government  before  the  Tribunal  of  Arbitra- 
tion at  Geneva. 

JOHN  N.    CUSHING. 

One  of  the  largest  and  most  successful  ship  owners  in  this  State — as  an  im- 
porter of  European  goods  he  was  widely  known. 

REV.    DANIEL   DANA,    D.    D. 

Third  pastor  of  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Newburyport,  from  1794  to  1820. 
President  Dartmouth  college,  and  pastor  of  Second  Presbyterian  church  of  New- 
buryport. 

LORD    TIMOTHY   DEXTER. 

Famous  for  many  eccentricities.  He  founded  the  "Dexter  Fund"  for  the  poor 
of  Newburyport.     Born  1743;  died  1806.     Portrait  painted  1798. 

REV.    DR.    L.    F.    DIMMICK. 

Third  pastor  of  tlie  North  church  of  Newburyport,  from  1819  to  1860. 

GOVERNOR   WILLIAM   DUM.MEK. 

Founder  of  Dummer  Academy.  A  wise  Governor  and  man  of  great  philan- 
thropy and  public  spirit.     Copley,  artist. 

LADY   DUMMER. 

Wife  of  Governor  Dummer.     Copley,  artist. 


OF    THK    SETTLEMENT    OF    XEWBURY.  133 

DANIEL   FOSTER. 

Sergeant  under  Lafayette  in  1776.  A  sword  was  presented  him  by  Lafayette 
as  a  token  of  friendship  and  a  tribute  to  his  bravery.  Bom  March.  1762;  died 
August,  1833. 

DEACOX   EZRA    HALE. 

Town  clerk  of  Newbury  for  thirty-six  successive  years.  Was  always  a  resident 
of  Newbury. 

COLONEL   EBEN   HALE. 

Many  years  president  Ocean  Bank,  Newburyport.  Was  largely  interested  in 
shipping. 

DR.    EBENEZER    HALE. 

Graduate  of  Dartmouth  Medical  College  1829.  Founded  "Hale  Fund  for  the 
benefit  of  Firemen."  Practised  his  profession  in  Newbury,  Vt.,  and  Boston,  Mass. 
He  retired  early  on  account  of  ill  health.     Bom  1809;  died  1847. 

JOHN   HARRIS. 

Held  several  important  offices  under  President  Washington.    Copley,  artist. 

ELIZABETH   TITCOMB. 

Wife  of  John  Harris ;  mother  of  the  late  Mrs.  Hervey  Kimball. 

THOMAS    HALE. 

Came  to  Newbury  in  1785.  Learned  the  hatter's  trade  and  started  a  hat  factory 
in  Belleville,  in  which  he  was  very  successful.  He  was  very  benevolent.  In  later 
years  he  engaged  in  shipping  to  a  considerable  extent.    Born  1773;  died  1836. 

REV.  DR.  BENJAMIN    HALE. 

Professor  in  Dartmouth  College;  president  of  Hobart  College,  Geneva,  N.  Y. ; 
was  very  successful  as  an  educator  of  youth,  and  prominent  as  a  minister  of  the 
Episcopalian  denomination. 

JOSIAH    L.    HALE. 

He  was  very  successful  in  Marine  insurance  matters,  being  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Atlantic  Mutual  Insurance  Company  in  New  York.  Mr.  Hale  was  also 
president  of  this  company,  which  was  the  largest  in  the  United  States. 

MOSES   L.    HALE. 

For  forty-five  years  prominent  in  business  circles  in  Boston,  and  was  also  an 
influential  officer  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions. 

REBECCA    HOOPER. 

The  daughter  of  King  Hooper  of  Marblehead,  and  sister  of  Mrs.  Dalton,  wife 
of  Tristam  Dalton ;  afterwards  the  wife  of  Lewis  Jenkins,  and  grandmother  of 
Mrs.  Caroline  J.  Currier  of  Newburj^port.  Born  1755 ;  died  1790.  A  crayon 
portrait  by  Copley,  made  in  1775. 

NATHAN    HOYT. 

Active  in  social  and  public  matters,  and  ship  owner,  largely  interested  in 
European  and  West  India  trade.  Was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Pleasant  street 
society,  and  had  charge  of  building  the  meeting  house  on  Pleasant  street.  Painted 
in  1800. 


134  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FltTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

MRS.    NATHAN   HOYT. 

Wife  of  Mr.  Nathan  Hoyt.     Painted  in  1800. 

MISS   ANNA   JAQUE8. 

Founded  the  "Anna  Jaqiies  Hospital"  in  Newburyport,  and  also  gave  large 
amounts  of  money  for  charitable  purposes.     Born  1801 ;  died  January,  1885. 

ANTHONY   KNAPP. 

A  prominent  shipmaster.     Painted  in  New  Orleans,  1801. 

J.    J.    KNAPP. 

At  21  years  of  age.  Merchant  and  ship  owner  many  years,  and  forty  years 
secretary  Newburyport  Fire  Insurance  Company. 

OOiL.    JOSIAH    LITTLE. 

A  man  of  energy  and  great  business  capacity.  He  was  engaged  in  large  real  es- 
tate transactions,  and  in  the  ownership  and  management  of  ships.  Was  nineteen 
times  elected  representative  to  the  Legislature.  He  gave  liberally  to  Bowdoin 
College  and  also  contributed  largely  to  the  building  of  Belleville  church.  Born 
1747;  died  1830. 

JOSIAH   LITTLE. 

Son  of  Col.  Josiah  Little,  the  founder  of  the  Newburyport  Public  Library.  He 
was  president  of  the  Mechanicks  Bank,  Institution  for  Savings,  and  Bartlett  cot- 
ton mills,  and  also  State  senator.  Mr.  Little  also  endowed  a  professorship  in 
Bowdoin  College. 

MIOAJAH   LUNT,    SENIOR. 

Bom  in  Newbury,  1764.  He  was  captured  three  times  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary war.     A  successful  ship  master  and  prominent  merchant.     Died  1840. 

MICAJAH    LUNT,    JR. 

Prominent  in  town  and  State  affairs,  and  large  ship  owner.    Born  1796,  died  1874. 

KEV.   JOHN   C.    MARCH. 

Second  pastor  Belleville  church,  from  1832  to  his  death  in  1846.  At  the  200th 
anniversary  in  1835,  Mr.  March  read  the  scriptures  from  a  Bible  printed  in  1635. 

REV.    C.    W.   MILTON. 

Was  first  pastor  Fourth  Religious  (Prospect  street)  society,  from  1794  to  1842. 

REV.   JAMES   MILTIMORE. 

First  pastor  Belleville  church,  from  1808  to  1836. 

REV.   JAMES  MOUSS,   D.   D. 

Rector  St.  Paul's  church,  Newburyport,  from  1803  to  1842.  Prayer  at  the  200th 
anniversary  was  offered  by  Dr.  Morss.     Painted  in  1804. 

SAMUEL  MULLIKEN. 

Shipmaster  and  cashier  of  Merchants  Bank,  Newburyport,  for  many  years. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  135 

EBENEZER   MOSELEY. 

A  graduate  of  Yale  College.  Studied  law  and  settled  in  Newburyport  in  1805. 
Was  colonel  of  the  Sixth  Regiment  in  the  war  of  1812  to  1814.  Was  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  in  the  Senate  and  House  ten  years.  He  was  the 
president  of  the  day  at  the  200th  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Xewburj\  and 
also  connected  with  banking  and  insurance  interests  of  Newburyport,  and  ranked 
high  for  his  legal  ability.     Born  1781;  died  1854. 

RET.  JOHN   MURRAY. 

Second  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church,  Newburyport,  from  1781  to  1793. 

JEREMIAH   XELSOX. 

President  of  the  Merrimac  Insurance  Company.  Treasurer  from  1827  to  1838  of 
the  Institution  for  Savings,  and  member  of  Congress  from  this  district  for  seven- 
teen years. 

REV.    JONATHAN   PARSONS. 

First  minister  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Newburyport  from  1746  to 
1776.  A  preacher  of  great  ability  and  verj'  eloquent  in  his  discourses.  His  re- 
mains are  buried  in  a  tomb  under  the  pulpit  of  that  church  with  those  of  Rev. 
George  Whitefleld. 

THEOPHILUS   PARSONS. 

Chief  justice  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  authority  in  all  matters  connected  with 
the  law,  and  his  opinions  remain  undisputed  in  the  courts  at  the  present  time. 

JACOB    PERKINS. 

An  inventor  who  displayed  great  ability  in  America,  and  in  Europe  his  talents 
as  an  inventor  were  fully  recognized. 

LIEUT.    AMOS   PEARSON. 

Wounded  at  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Eighty  years  old  when  this  portrait 
was  painted. 

BENJAMIN    PIERCE. 

A  successful  shipmaster  and  merchant  and  largely  interested  in  commerce.  In 
the  war  of  1812  he  gave  to  the  American  government  the  brig  Alert.  He  also 
fitted  out  several  privateers,  one  of  which,  the  Decatur,  was  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain William  Nichols,  and  came  into  the  harbor  at  one  time  with  three  prizes. 
Bom  1769:  died  1831. 

NICHOLAS    PIKE. 

Master  of  grammar  school  in  the  Town  House  many  years.  Acting  magistrate 
of  Essex  county  from  1776  to  1819.  Author  of  "A  system  of  arithmetic"  in  1788, 
the  first  work  of  the  kind  published  in  the  United  States. 

JAMES   PRINCE. 

Collector  of  customs  from  1822  to  1828.  He  entertained  Gen.  La  Fayette  in  1824 
at  his  house  on  State  street,  now  occupied  by  the  Public  Library. 

SONS   OF  JAMES   PRINCE. 

Two  portraits  painted  in  1801.     Artist  unknown. 


136  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

ELIZABETH   MOODY   EIDGWAY. 

A  direct  descendant  of  Caleb  Moody,  who  located  on  the  farm  in  West  New- 
bury which  has  always  been  in  the  Moody  family. 

CAPT.    WILLIAM   KEMICK. 

An  old  and  interesting  portrait.     Artist  unknown. 

SETII    SWEETSER. 

For  many  years  a  merchant  of  Newburyport.     T.  B.  Lawson,  artist. 

JOEL   SCOTT. 

Prominent  in  insurance  circles,  and  president  of  the  Alliance  Insurance  Com panj^ 
of  Boston.     Born  1812;  died  1858.     T.  B.  Lawson,  artist. 

ENOCH   TITCOMB. 

Born  1752.  Town  treasurer  of  Newburyport  from  1783  to  1812.  Brigade  Major 
in  Gen.  Sullivan's  command  in  Revolutionary  war;  representative  and  senator  and 
a  man  in  public  life,  until  the  infirmities  of  age  compelled  him  to  retire.  Portrait 
painted  in  Newburyport  1775. 

KEV.    JOHN   TTTOKER,    D.    D. 

Pastor  of  the  First  church  in  Newbury  from  1745  to  1792. 

KEV.    DK.    LEONARD    WITHINGTON. 

Pastor  of  the  First  church  in  Newbury  from  1816  to  1885.     Born  1789 ;  died  1885. 

WILLIAM    WHEELWRIGHT. 

Bom  in  Newburyport  1798;  died  in  London  1873.  Established  lines  of  steam- 
ships in  South  America  io  American  and  European  ports.  Builder  of  railways  in 
Chili  and  the  Argentine  Republic.  He  bequeathed  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
to  found  a  Free  Scientific  School  in  Newburyport. 

PHOTOGRAPH   OF   STATUE   OF   WILLIAM   WHEELWRIGHT. 

A  photograph  of  the  Statue  erected  in  Valparaiso,  Chili,  to  the  memory  of 
William  Wheelwright,  and  to  commemorate  the  important  results  accomplished 
by  his  labors  in  South  America. 

EBENEZBR   WHEELWRIGHT. 

Mr.  Wheelwright  and  his  wife  engaged  in  reading  the  Scriptures.  Parents  of 
Mr.  William  Wheelwright.     Mr.  Wheelwright  was  a  prominent  merchant  in  the 

town. 


APPENDIX. 


18 


LETTERS   OF    REGRET. 


A  few  of  the  lettei's  received  from  guests  who  were  unable  to  attend 
the  anniversary  exercises,  are  given  below : 

fkom  the  governor  of  ma88a0mt8ett8. 

Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,     ) 
ExECTTivE  Department, 

Boston,  May  13,  1885.) 
Albert  W.  Greenleaf,  Esq., 

Secretary  Committee  on  Invitations, 

Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury : 
Dear  Sir: — I  have  held  your  very  kind  invitation  to  myself  and  staff  to  be 
present  at  the  e-xercises  in  commemoration  of  the  two  himdred  and  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  the  settlement  of  Newbury,  Mass.,  Wednesday,  June  10th,  in  the  pos- 
sibility that  I  might  see  my  way  clear  to  an  acceptance.  But  I  now  find  that  by 
reason  of  my  public  duties  and  engagements  I  shall  be  unable  to  be  present. 
Trusting  that  the  occasion  may  be  in  every  sense  a  success,  wortliy  of  the  New- 
bury of  the  past  in  its  long  and  honorable  historj',  and  in  its  spirit  an  earnest  of 
the  Newbury  of  the  future  in  its  development  and  prosperity, 
1  have  the  honor  to  be  very  respectfully  3'ours, 

George  D.  Robinson. 


FROM    HON.    ROBERT    C.    WINTHROP,  LL.  D. 

Boston,  22d  May,  1885. 
Albert  W.  Greenleaf,  Esq..  Secretary: 

Dear  Sir : — Tlie  kind  invitation  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury  has 
reached  me  on  my  return  from  a  journey  for  my  health.  I  hasten  to  offer  my 
grateful  acknowledgments  to  the  society,  and  to  express  my  regrets  that  I  cannot 
be  with  them  on  the  10th  of  June.  I  have  a  most  agreeable  impression  of  the 
pleasure  I  enjoyed  at  the  celebration  of  the  Two  Hundredtli  Anniversary'  of  Old 
Newbury,  and  should  gladly  renew  my  associations  with  the  town  and  its  history 
at  the  end  of  another  half  century,  when  it  has  grown  to  be  an  important  and 
prosperous  city :  but  I  am  compelled  to  deny  myself. 

Believe  me,  very  faithfully  your  obedient  servant. 

Robert  C.  Winthuop. 


140  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 


from  the  president  of  va8sar  college. 

Vassar  College,  > 

P0TJGHKEEP8IE,  N.  Y.,  May  16,  1885.) 
Albert  W.  Greenleaf,  Esq., 

Dear  8'r: — I  am  much  honored  by  the  mvitation  of  the  Historical  Society  of 
Old  Newburj"  to  be  present  at  the  commemoration  of  the  settlement  of  the  town 
after  a  lapse  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years.  I  should  be  very  glad  to  accept  the 
hospitalities  offered  and  to  participate  personally  in  the  celebration.  But  the 
commencement  of  this  college  occurs  on  the  same  day,  and  it  is  quite  impossible 
for  me  to  leave  my  paramount  duties  here. 

I  recall  vividly  the  celebration  of  fifty  years  ago,  which  greatly  impressed  a  lad 
who  at  that  time  had  seen  little  of  the  great  world  outside,  and  to  whom  an  emi- 
nent person,  like  some  who  then  appeared  on  the  streets  for  a  day,  was  a  wonder. 
Your  board  will  be  graced  by  persons  of  similar  eminence,  and  though  such  com- 
memorations have  become  somewhat  familiar  in  the  last  half-century,  I  hope  this 
occasion  may  be  as  impressive  and  inspiring  as  the  last.  I  am  sure  it  will  be  to 
the  true  sons  of  Newbury,  who  may  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  there. 

Very  many  of  them  have  gone  away  from  the  old  home  of  their  ancestors  for 
two  hundred  years,  but  their  untravelled  hearts  fondly  turn  to  that  spot  which 
has  upon  it  a  charm  which  is  nowhere  else  on  sea  or  land.  "Though  inland  far 
we  be,"  the  rote  of  the  sea  lingers  in  our  ears;  and  not  the  Hudson  or  the  Colum- 
bia is  like  the  river  where  we  built  our  early  dreams.  And  it  is  not  land  and  water 
and  the  fair  horizon  encircling  them,  but  the  human  life  which  has  there  for  so 
many  generations  been  fertilizing  the  spot,  which  gives  it  its  consecration.  The 
old  town  many  of  us  have  the  memory  of  was  peopled  and  marked  by  that  New 
England  blood,  which,  with  whatever  faults  run  in  it,  is  the  best  blood,  and  has 
made  the  best  history  in  the  world.  I  know  no  better  and  happier  spot  to  be 
born  in  than  that  very  corner  of  Massachusetts  where  the  Merrimack  runs  into 
the  sea.  And  it  is  the  New  England  history,  the  New  England  church  and 
school,  which  have  made  it  such.  Whatever  its  future  may  be,  Newbury  has 
bred  good  men,  and  even  great  men,  and  contributed  its  share  to  the  better  life  of 
the  Republic.  The  forces  of  good  are  not  exhausted,  even  with  all  the  draft 
which  has  been  made  upon  the  town  for  a  good  part  of  this  century,  by  the  more 
growing  parts  of  the  country.  I  am  sure  it  will  be  the  aspiration  of  all  her  gath- 
ered sons  that  her  future  may  not  be  unworthy  of  her  now  lengthening  past,  and 
that  she  may  always  breed  a  race  of  true,  strong,  worthy  men,  and  women  too, 
who  shall  keep  the  honor  which  even  her  very  first  settlers  put  upon  her  in  the 
beginning. 

I  have  been  betrayed  by  rather  a  natural  impulse,  into  a  longer  letter  than  is 
necessary  to  acknowledge  the  courtesy  of  the  invitation  I  have  received,  and  to 
deplore  the  mischance  which  has  brought  into  the  same  day  your  celebration  and 
the  graduation  of  a  class  of  young  women  with  academic  degrees  and  honors, 
which  I  must  be  here  to  confer — an  event,  I  imagine,  not  anticipated,  perhaps, 
even  in  the  millennium,  by  that  worthy  son  of  Oxford,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Parker, 
who  taught  the  most  learned  tongues  to  the  boys,  but  I  fear  not  to  the  girls  of 
that  ancient  Newbury,  whose  simple  beginnings  are  to  be  brought  afresh  to  mem- 
ory on  the  tenth  of  June. 

Very  truly  yours, 

S.  L.  Caldwell. 


OF    THK    SETTLKMEXT    OK    SEWBrRY.  141 

FKOM    RT.    REV.    THOMAS   M.    CLARK,    D.  D.  LL.  D.,  BISHOP    OF    RHODE    ISLAXD. 

Bishop  Clark  regrets  it  is  not  in  his  power  to  be  present  at  the  exercises  to  be 
held  in  commemoration  of  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  tlie 
Settlement  of  Newbury,  Mass.,  on  Wednesday,  June  10th. 

Providence,  R.  I.,  May  15th,  1885. 


FROM    HON.    CHARLES   P.    THOMPSON. 

Gloucester,  June  9,  1885.  . 
HoNS.  John  J.  Currier  and  Albert  W.  Greenleaf, 

Committee  of  Historical  Society  of  Old  Newbury : 
Bear  Sirs : — Your  highly  esteemed  favor  inviting  me  to  be  present  on  the  lOtii 
inst.  at  the  exercises  to  be  heJd  in  commemoration  of  the  two  liundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Newbury  has  been  received.  I  had  hoped  to  be 
with  you  on  tliat  occasion  and  share  its  pleasures,  but  find  that  I  cannot  do  so. 
There  is  no  town  in  the  Old  Commonwealth  that  has  more  just  cause  to  be  proud 
of  her  record  than  the  good  old  town  of  Newbury — no  one  that  has  given  to  the 
State,  country  and  the  world  nobler,  braver,  more  patriotic  or  abler  men  and 
women,  or  more  efficient  workers  in  every  field  of  honorable  effort.  Most  heart- 
ily do  I  congratulate^  her  upon  her  prosperity  and  enviable  position,  and  I  am  as- 
sured that  her  future  will  add  lustre  to  her  brilliant  past.  Appreciating  the  con- 
sideration of  tlie  societj"  and  its  committee.  I  am  truly, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Charles  P.  Thompson. 


FROM    HON.    AARON    A.    SARGENT. 

San  Francisco,  Cal,,  May  18th,  1885. 
Hon.  J.  J.  Currier  and  others, 

Committee  on  Invitations : 
Gents:— \  gratefully  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  invitation  to  be  present  at 
the  exercises  to  be  held  in  commemoration  of  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  the  settlement  of  Newbury,  and  very  much  regret  my  inability  to  be 
present  on  that  interesting  occasion. 

Very  respectfully, 

A.  A.  Sargent. 


from  james  bichens  francis,  esq. 

148  Andover  Street,  > 
Lowell,  Mass.,  June  6,  1885.) 
My  Dear  Sir:-— As  a  former  resident  of  Old  Newbury  in  Berkshire,  England,  it 
would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  accept  your  kind  invitation  for  the  10th  inst.,  but 
I  have  an  imperative  engagement  on  that  daj-  in  another  direction.  My  grand- 
father, James  Bicliens,  was  for  a  long  time  minister  of  the  Baptist  chapel  there, 
retiring  in  1811,  and  dying  there  in  1831.  He  was  much  interested  in  the  new 
Newburj'. 

Very  truly  yours, 

James  Bichens  Francis. 
A.  W.  Greenleaf,  Esq. 


142  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

ORIGINAL  POEM  BY  MISS  EMILY  A.  GETCHELL. 


The  Committee  on  Literary  Exercises  received  the  following  poem, 
written  for  the  occasion  by  Miss  Emily  A.  Getchell  of  Newbury])ort, 
but  owing  to  the  length  of  the  regular  programme  there  was  no  oppor- 
tunity to  read  it  during  the  exei'cises  of  the  day. 


WESTWARD,    HO  ! 

' '  Then  rising  afar  o'er  the  Western  sea 
A  new  world  rose  in  the  dawn  of  the  day, 
Ready  to  welcome  the  bra/ce  and  free.'''' 

In  and  out  trends  the  rugged  shore — 
Sand  and  breakers,  and  o'erhead  the  skj-; 
Fish-hawk  and  gull  with  their  quavering  crj'  . 
Swoop  for  their  prey,  'mid  the  ceaseless  roar; 
Loneliness  where'er  the  eye  can  reach, 
On  curling  billow  or  glimmering  beach; 
Inland,  long,  low  hills  uprise, 

Clothed  on  sides  and  summits  with  gray-green  pines, 
And  storm-torn  cedars  that  to  the  skies 
Toss  their  crooked  branches,  while  far  off  shines 
A  broad,  blue  river  that  sweeping  comes 
Where  the  harbor  barrier  swells  and  foams. 
A  masterless  land,  where  the  red  man  keeps 
His  savage  slate;  where  the  sturgeon  leaps 
In  the  river's  current,  as  fearlessly 
As  the  deer  in  the  forest,  fleet  and  free. 
Who  shall  bear  rule  over  hillside  and  plain  ? 
Whose  hearth  fires  burn  in  the  sheltered  glade  ? 
Whose  bark  trace  the  river  through  simlight  and  shade, 
From  its  fountain-cradle  till  lost  in  the  main? 
On  the  bar  the  breakers  are  leaping  and  tossing. 
And  in  their  low  thunder  a  burden  they  ring: 
"The  Master  and  Ruler  is  coming,  coming; 
The  hill  and  the  river  are  waiting  the  King, 
Who  is  comingi  comingi" 


A.  D.     1000. 

"Come  rouse  ye  up,  my  comrades  bold, 

We'll  seek  the  summer  land; 
There  the  swords  clash  loud  in  my  father's  hall, 
Tlie  mead  is  strong,  and  the  warriors  all 

Are  dauntless  of  heart  and  handl" 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OK    XEWBURY.  143 

They  have  launched  away  in  their  sea-craft  stout, 

Thomstein  and  his  Viking  crew; 
They  sailed  full  many  a  day  and  night, 
But  the  black  fog  hid  sun  and  stars  from  sight. 

And  thej'  steered  as  the  blind  might  do. 

And,  lol  like  a  curtain  drawn  aside, 

The  vapors  lift  and  fly ; — 
"Ha,  comrade,  is  this  thy  summer  land. 
With  the  strange  green  hills  and  the  shining  sand  ?" 

Is  the  wondering  warrior's  cry. 

Their  leader  gazes  with  puzzled  face : 

"  'Tls  a  fair,  new  land,"  quoth  he, 
"On  which  Balder  has  smiled,  but  we  stay  not  now ;" 
And  with  steady  rudder  the  vessel's  prow 

He  turns  to  the  Northern  sea.  (A) 

High  on  the  bar  Ban's  chargers  are  plunging. 

Into  the  sunlight  their  white  manes  they  fling  ; 
"Not  for  you,  not  for  you  1 "  is  the  voice  of  the  tumult, 

"The  hill  and  the  river  wait  still  for  the  king. 
Who  is  coming  I  coming  I " 

A.  D.,  Ifi05. 

Drifting  past  the  frowning  headlands. 

Pausing  in  each  sunny  bay. 
Feasting  with  the  Indian  warriors, 

Dallying  through  the  summer  day. 
All  tlie  winter's  woe  forgotten. 

Strife,  privation  and  annoy, 
In  their  mission  all  undaunted. 

See  the  exiles  of  St.  Croix. 

For  the  cross  and  golden  lilies 

They  this  goodly  land  would  gain. 
Men  who  neither  faint  nor  falter 

Are  De  Monts  and  Sieur  Champlain. 
Conquest  won,  their  soul's  salvation 

To  the  heathen  they  would  bring; 
Faithful  children,  bounteous  treasure, 

To  their  Lady  and  the  king.  (Bj 


A.  D.  1000.     (A.)     See  B.  F.  DaCosta's  "  Discovery  of  America  by  Xoi-seinrn." 
A.  D.  1605.    (B.)    Parkmau's  "  Pioneei-s  of  France  in  the  New  World." 


144  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

In  a  wliite  wall  of  foam  the  breakers  are  curling ; 

"Not  for  you,  not  for  you!"  is  the  chorus  they  sing, 
"Free-handed,  free-hearted  must  be  the  true  master, 

The  hill  and  the  river  yet  wait  for  the  king, 
Who  is  coming,  coming  I" 

A.  D..  1614. 

The  fog  rolls  out  to  seaward. 

Before  the  western  gale. 
And  beating  towards  a  harbor 

Is  seen  a  tiny  sail. 
Like  the  white  wing  of  a  sea-bird 

It  flutters  slowly  past. 
And  the  flag  of  Merrie  England 

And  St.  George  floats  from  the  mast. 

Sore  vexed  with  cares  and  quarrels. 

And  woes  on  every  hand. 
The  hardy,  fearless  Saxon 

Turns  to  search  the  rocks  and  sand. 
Tragabizanda's  headland  keeps 

His  Eastern  houri's  name. 
And  the  grim,  storm-worn  Islands 

With  Virginia  his  fame.  (C) 

Up  and  down  on  the  bar  the  breakers  are  dancing. 
And  mocking  and  light  is  the  chorus  they  sing : 

"Hie  back  to  your  green  woods  and  dusky-browed  princess, 
The  hill  and  the  river  wait  yet  for  the  king. 
Who  is  coming!  coming!" 

A.  D.,  1635. 

Sunrise  upon  the  Quasycung ! 
The  robins  carol  loud  and  long  ; 
The  myriad  shapes  of  forest  life 
Wake  to  new  gladness  with  the  song  ; 
The  wild  flowers  greet  the  wandering  bee 
The  river  hastens  to  join  the  sea. 

Noontide  upon  the  Quasycung  I 

The  greenwood's  brooding  hush  is  stirred 

By  unused  tread  of  stranger  feet, 

B}'  childhood's  laugh  and  man's  brief  word. 

A  shallop  is  moored  to  the  pebbly  shore, 

Where  a  birchen  canoe  has  lain  before ; 

The  valley  silence  shall  know  no  more. 

A.  1>.  1014.     (C.)     Capt.  Jolm  Smith's  "  Adventures  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  etc." 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OK    NEWBURY.  14o 

Nightfall  upon  the  QuasycungI 
Echoes  along  the  shadowy  dells 
A  single  voice  in  earnest  speech, 
And  then  a  low  chant  sinks  and  swells ; 
To  Him,  a  meed  of  thanks  expressed. 
For  guiding  thro'  the  wilds  their  quest, 


Clear  shine  the  stars  over  Quasycung  I 

The  mystic  voices  of  the  night, 

Nestle  of  bird,  the  prowler's  cry. 

They  hear  who  keep  the  watch-fire  bright. 

Echoes  fantastical  it  seems, 

Borne  in  upon  the  sleepers'  dreams, 

Of  the  dear  English  woods  and  streams.  (D.) 

The  breakers  have  died  to  a  sighing  murmur, 
A  slumber  song  to  the  mermaids  known; 
And  from  far-off  reaches  of  lonelj'  beaches, 
The  night-wind  bears  on  the  long  low  tone: 
"Come  to  their  own !  Come  to  their  own.'" 


A.  D.  1633.     (D.)    See  Coffin's  "  Ilistorj' of  Newburj-." 


U» 


146 


T\VO    HUND2KD    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY. 

MEMBERS  OF  THE  CHORUS. 


NORMAN     MeLEOD,    of    Newburyport,      Conductor. 
Miss    LIZZIE    BADGER,     of     Newburyport,    Pianist. 

Aeconnpanied  by  an  Orchestra  of  Twenty-one  Pieces,  under  the  Direction 
of  T.  M.  CARTER,  of  Boston. 


Tenori. 
Mr.  Frank  Alley,  Newburyport. 
Col.  J.  F.  Kingsbury,  Boston. 
Mr.  Edward  S.  Knight,  Newbury. 
Mr.  Edward  McLaughlin,  Newburyport. 
Dr.  Geo.  E.  L.  Noyes,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Geo.  C   Rogers,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  Frank  H.  Rundlett,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Leonard  W.  Smith,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  Wm.  C.  Stanwood,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  Wm.  H.  Sumner,  Newburyport. 

SOPRANE 

Miss  Carrie  Adams,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Minnie  C.  Balch,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Isadore  Ballon,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Sarah  Bogardus,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  John  B.  Brookings,  Newburyport. 
]Mrs.  Abby  M.  Burnham,  Newbury. 
Miss  Lizzie  M.  Carr,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  E.  W.  Chase,  West  Newbury. 
Mrs.  J.  M.  Culver,  West  Newbury. 
Mrs.  Hattie  C.  Dodge,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Annie  M.  Duffee,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Etta  McLaughlin,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Carrie  W.  Luut,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Fannie  E.  Lunt,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Mary  P.  Lunt,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Grace  W.  Luut,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Belle  Morse,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Ella  Morse,  Newbury. 
Miss  Annie  Mumford,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Emma  Noyes,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  R.  T.  Noyes.  Newbury. 
Miss  Maria  O'Grady,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Carrie  F.  Pike.  Newburyport. 
Miss  (Uara  Poor.  West  Newbury. 
Mis<  Annie  M.  Titcomb,  West  Newbury, 
Miss  Julia  Wells,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Albert  H.  Wilson,  Newburyport. 


CONTRALTE 

Mrs.  R.  Adams,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Lizzie  C.  Adams,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  P.  H.  Blumpey,  jr., Newburyport. 
Miss  Emma  Bailey,  West  Newbury. 
Mrs.  O.  G.  Chase,  West  Newbury. 
Miss  Hattie  F.  Chase,  Newburj'port. 
Mrs.  J.  B.  M.  Dickins,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  H.  D.  Follansbee,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Susie  Goodrich,  West  Newbury. 
Mrs.  P.  S.  Hulbert,  Newburyport. 
Miss  S.  C.  McCusker,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  Clara  Merrill,  Newburyport. 
Mrs.  A.  D.  Ordway,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Bertha  Perkins,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Annie  Rogers,  West  Newbury. 
Mrs.  S.  C.  Reed,  Newburyport. 
Miss  Mary  Stanwood,  West  Newbury. 
Miss  Annie  Wiggles  worth,  Newburyp't. 
Miss  Mabel  Stanwood,  West  Newbury. 

Bass  I. 
Mr.  Richard  G.  Adams,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  John  H.  Balch,  jr.,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  George  Bailey,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  George  W.  Blake,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  John  B.  Brookings,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Elwood  N.  Chase,   West  Newbury. 
Mr.  Joseph  W.  Evans,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  John  R.  Flint,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Frank  W.  Goodwin,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  James  W.  Hervey,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  John  A.  Maynard,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Benj.  Pearson,  jr.,  Newbury. 
Mr.  Moses  H.  Poor,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  George  H.  Stevens,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Eben  P.  Stanwood,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  Dean  R.  Stanwood,  West  Newbury. 
Mr.  Wm.  M.  Tibbetts,  Newburyport. 
Mr.  Frank  C.  Wilson,  Newburyport. 


OK    THE    SKTTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY. 


147 


NAMES  OF  CONTRIBUTORS  TO  THE  FUND  RAISED  FOR  THE  CELE- 
BRATION OF  THE  TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTIETH 
ANNIVERSARY. 


John  J.   Currier,    New 

bury  port. 

Sam'l  K.  Whipple,  Newbury  port 

E.  F.  Stone, 

do" 

S.  B.  Carter, 

do 

T.  C.  Simpson, 

do 

H.  C.  Plummer, 

do 

Edward  S.  Moseley, 

do 

George  J.  Caldwell, 

do 

David  L.  Witliington, 

do 

R.  M.  Perley, 

do 

E.  P.  Dodge, 

do 

M.  P.  Perley, 

do 

H.  B.  Little, 

do 

Benjamin  Akerman, 

do 

Robert  N.  Toppan, 

do 

Job  B.  M.  Dickins. 

do 

Charles  P.  Mills, 

do 

Willard  J.  Hale, 

do 

Philip  H.  Lunt, 

do 

George  H.  Pearson, 

do 

Mrs.  George  H.  Corliss, 

do 

George  H.  Fenderson, 

do 

Mrs.  B.  T.  Tredick, 

do 

George  H.  Stevens, 

do 

Joshua  Hale, 

do 

Henry  Z.  Whittier, 

do 

Benjamin  Hale, 

do 

George  H.  Clark, 

do 

Lucy  Hale, 

do 

George  P.  Balch, 

do 

Wm.  H.  Swasey, 

do 

Paul  Titcomb, 

do 

Alex.  Caldwell, 

do 

William  H.  Johnson, 

do 

A.  H.  Wells, 

do 

Edmund  P.  Graves, 

do 

William  H.  Huse, 

do 

Charles  C.  Dame, 

do 

J.  T.  Brown, 

do 

J.  M.  Greenough. 

do 

John  Pearson  &  Son, 

do 

P.  H.  Blumpey, 

do 

John  N.  Cushing, 

do 

C.  C.  Wallace, 

do 

L.  B.  Cushing, 

do 

P.  K.  Hills, 

do 

Eben  Sumner, 

do 

Enoch  Gerrish, 

do 

Mrs.  E.  T.  Fitch, 

do 

H.  T.  Adams, 

do 

George  W.  Creasey, 

do 

Thomas  Foster, 

do 

James  Parton, 

do 

W.  J.  Creasey, 

do 

Henry  M.  Cross, 

do 

F.  O :  Woods, 

do 

A.  J.  Teeling, 

do 

John  H.  Balch, 

do 

Samuel  J.  Spalding, 

do 

E.  P.  Shaw, 

do 

Wm.  O.  Moseley, 

do 

John  Sumner, 

do 

Charles  F.  Lunt. 

do 

Anthony  S.  Jones, 

do 

Nathan  D.  Dodge, 

do 

Allen  M.  Brewster, 

do 

William  W.  Jacques, 

do 

T.  O'Connell, 

do 

Henry  B.  Reed, 

do 

E.  F.  Bartlett, 

do 

William  B.  Boardman, 

do 

George  J.  L.  Colbj', 

do 

A.  W.  Bailey, 

do 

Herman  Castelhun. 

do 

Miss  Floyd, 

do 

Robert  Couch,  jr.. 

do 

E.  P.  Russell, 

do 

Johnson  Littlefield. 

do 

David  Smith, 

do 

R.  Jacoby, 

do 

F.  M.  Gates, 

do 

A.  W.  Thompson, 

do 

Robert  Couch, 

do 

D.  A.  Goodwin,  jr.. 

do 

James  C.  Plummer, 

do 

William  Todd, 

do 

148 


TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIKTH    ANNIVERSARY 


Names  of  Contributors  to  tJie  Fund. — Continued. 


Mary  N.  Plummer,  Newburj^port. 

Charles  G.  Wood,  do 

Henry  LeB.  Wills,  do 

J.  A.  Shattuck,  do 

George  H.  Plumer,  do 

E.  T.  Northend,  do 

Charles  H.  Coffin,  do 

Anna  P.  Flanders,  do 

Roland  W.  Toppan,  do 

Moses  E.  Hale,  do 

William  Thurlow,  do 

T.  B.  Lawson,  do 

Benjamin  F.  Stanley,  do 
Moses  Colman,         Newbury. 

Luther  Dame,  do 

William  Little,  do 

Joseph  Danforth.  do 

Enoch  Plumer,  do 

N.  Burke  Little,  do 

G.  A.  Randall,  do 

H.  F.  Longfellow,  do 

Mrs.  Edward  H.  Little,  do 


Frank  L.  Ferguson,  Newbury. 

Edward  Kent,  do 

M.  T.  Little,  do 

M.  A.  H.  Proctor,  do 

Mrs.  Enoch  Plumer,  do 

D.  D.  Adams,  do 

J.  O.  Rogers,  do 

L  W.  Wheelwright,  do 
C.    S.   Bradley,    West  Newbury 

Haydn  Brown,  do 

J.  Durgin,  do 
Mrs.  Martha  L.  Moody,   do 

M.  H.  Emery,  do 

T.  M.  Chase,  do 

J.  H.  Durgin,  do 

C.  W.  Ordway,  do 

Richard  Newell,  do 

A.  L.  Haskell,  Boston. 

F.  S.  Moseley,  do 

Charles  W.  Moseley,  do 
Thomas  W.  Silloway,      do 

William  H.  Bent,  Lowell. 


OF    THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    NEWBURY.  149 


TREASURER'S  REPORT. 


To  the  Finance  Committee  for  the  Celebration  of  the  7\po  Hundred 
and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Settlement  of  Newbury : 
Gentlemen: — I  hand  you  herewith  a  statement  of  the  amount  re- 
ceived from  various  sources  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  celebration, 
and  also  the  amount  that  I  have  paid  out  in  accordance  with  your  in- 
structions L 

receipts. 

Individual  subscriptions f  1,260  00 

Sale  of  tickets  to  dinner,  in  addition  to  subscribers'  tickets 538  00 

Sale  of  tickets  for  reception,  in  addition  to  subscribers'  tickets 78  75 

Balance  contributed  to  make  up  deficit 102  19 

$1,978  94 

expenses. 

For  exercises  at  City  Hall,  and  reception  at  City  Hall $222  09 

For  music,  militarj' escort,  etc 263  56 

For  dinner  and  tent 1,379  79 

For  printing  and  advertising 113  50 

$1,978  94 
Respectfully  submitted, 

PHILIP  H.  LUNT,  Treasurer. 
Newburyport,  August  15,  1885. 


150 


TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 


NA3IES   OF   THE  PERSONS   WHO  GUARANTEED   THE  EXPENSE  OF 

THE    PUBLICATION   OF   THE   ACCOUNT   OF  THE   TWO 

HUNDRED  AND  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY. 


E.  S.  Moseley,  Newburyport. 
T.  W.  Silloway,  Boston. 
P.  K.  Hills,  Newburyport. 
A.  W.  Greenleaf,  Newburyport. 
Wm.  R.  Johnson,  Newburyport. 
Luther  Dame,  Newbury. 
J.  J.  Currier,  Newburyport. 
Benjamin  Hale,  Newburyport. 
J.  N.  Cushing,  Newburyport. 
H.  B.  Reed,  Newburyport. 
Alex.  Caldwell,  Newburyport. 
Wm.  Little,  Newbury. 
Mrs.  M.  S.  Fitch,  Newburyport. 
D.  L.  Withington,  Newburyport. 
W-  C.  Todd,  Newburyport. 
George  W.  Piper,  Newburyport. 
Joseph  E.  Moody,  Newburyport. 
J.  R.  Rollins,  Lawrence. 
James  Parton,  Newburyport. 


C.  W.  Moseley,  Boston. 
E.  P.  Dodge,  Newburj^port. 
H.  M.  Cross,  Newburyport. 

E.  P.  Graves,  Newburyport. 
A.  J.  Teeling,  Newburyport. 
Joshua  Hale,  Newburyport. 

F.  S.  Moseley,  Boston. 

W.  H.  Swasey,  Newburyport. 
David  Smith,  Newburyport. 
W.  H.  Huse,  Newburyport. 
E.  F.  Stone,  Newburjport. 
T.  C.  Simpson,  Newburj'port. 
N.  N.  Withington,  Newburyport. 
Charles  E.  Plummer,  Newburyport. 
Samuel  J.  Spalding.  Newburyport. 
William  Little,  Manchester,  N.  H. 
George  F.  Stone,  Chicago,  111. 
Nathaniel  Dole,  Newbury. 
Mary  T.  Little,  Newbury. 


-.™4^J/^^°^  25  CENTS 

THIS  BOoi  Sn  THH  dTt/."-^"^  ^°  ''^""N 
WILL  INCREASE  tSsScemtc^-  """^  '"^^^'"^ 
DAY  AND  TO  s[  OO  om  J®  °''  """^  FOURTH 
OVERDUE  ^'^     ^"^    SEVENTH     DAY 


LD21-100»«.7,'39(4028) 


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